Mylan CEO, Heather Bresh, called before House Oversight Committee

EpiPen maker, Mylan, called before House Oversight Committee to explain 400% price increase.

In the news recently, Mylan CEO, Heather Bresh, was called before the House Oversight Committee to discuss Mylan’s increase in prices of the EpiPen.  In case you missed it, EpiPen prices have risen about 400% with a two pack of the lifesaving injection drug at a retail cost of $600.

According to CNN, Ms. Bresh’s testimony before the House Oversight Committee will state that Mylan only makes about $50 for each $300 pen.  Money magazine also details how Mylan is trying to get EpiPen on the Preventative Medicines list, which would allow patients to receive EpiPen will little or no out-of-pocket costs, and so that insurance would have to pick up the cost.

What gets lost in the outrage over a drug price increase, is why the huge increase?  EpiPen has been around a long time, and the process to create EpiPen hasn’t changed for some time, so why the huge increase, and why is Mylan only getting $50 profit from a $300 item. 

One theory is Mylan has been increasing the demand of EpiPen through effective marketing practices.  See this Bloomberg article.  Another often not discussed aspect is transfer pricing, inversions and booking profits offshore.  As stated in the 10-K for Mylan for tax year ended (tye) December 31, 2014, Mylan inverted from a Pennsylvania Company to a Netherlands company with its principal executive offices in Potters Bar, UK. 

As previously discussed in this Blog, one of the key tools U.S. Multinational Corporations (USMNCs) utilize to lower its tax rate is to invert the corporate headquarters to a lower tax jurisdiction. 

Also as previously discussed in this Blog, a second tool used by USMNCs is transfer pricing.  In this case, as stated in this Time article, it costs Mylan about $30 to make each dose of EpiPen.  Mylan likely has the drug filled in the Netherlands or another tax favorable jurisdiction, and then re-sells the drug at the $600 price for a EpiPen 2 pack back to U.S. distributors, thereby booking the costs in the tax favorable jurisdiction. See this primer on transfer pricing.

By using this method (transfer pricing) USMNCs can claim a lower tax rate than the applicable 35% tax rate.  While I am not saying that Mylan utilizes transfer pricing, one indicator that Mylan may be utilizing transfer pricing is in its 10K, Mylan states that for 2014, Mylan only pays an effective tax rate of 4.2%.  (FYI, the statutory rate is 35% for corporations in the United States.)  Mylan also lists on is 10K that it approximately $693 million permanently reinvested in its foreign subsidiaries, which is how companies disguise on their 10K amounts they are holding offshore to avoid taxation in the U.S.

So this begs the question, why can Congress call Ms. Bresh to appear before the House Oversight Committee to discuss pricing, but the IRS can’t call Mylan to conduct an analysis of its transfer pricing or its inversion practice?

If you know of a corporation undervaluing assets in its transfer pricing models, contact our firm to discuss filing a tax whistleblower claim.  IRS will pay an award between 15-30% of collected proceeds (tax, penalties, and interest) to whistleblowers who provide substantial and credible information used by the IRS in prosecuting the alleged tax violators.