Mama Manchin pushed state schools to buy daughter’s EpiPens

After Papa Manchin put his wife on State Board of Education

Let’s see if I understand this correctly, based on a Tuesday story in USA Today by Ryan Quinn.

West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin appoints State First Lady Gayle Manchin to the West Virginia Board of Education in 2007.

As such, she advised West Virginia schools to stock EpiPens, a life-saving device for those who have an anaphylactic reaction.

Only Milan Pharmaceuticals, whose CEO is Gayle and Joe Manchin’s daughter, Heather Bresch, has a patent on EpiPens, even though the U.S. government paid for the research and development.

That gave Gayle and Joe’s daughter’s company  a monopoly in selling EpiPens to the state’s schools.

The same daughter who got a $16.5 million bump in her compensation after jacking up the price of the EpiPens from $100 to $600.

Mama Manchin did not respond to USA Today’s request for comments and did not answer the Charleston Gazette-Mail’s phone call seeking comment.

Ft. Hamilton Hospital Chief Medical Officer Dr. Marcus Romanello in Hamilton, which is in southwest Ohio, has an anti-dote to the Heather/Milan’s price-gouging -- and it costs less than $10.

He bought a bottle of epinephrine for $5.89 (no insurance required), put it in an Altoid tin with a syringe and – voila! – you have an epinephrine injector kit.

"Attach the needle. Pop the top and draw up the prescribed amount," said Dr. Romanello. When your doctor gives you the prescription, he or she can show you how to give the shot.

You have to overcome your squeamishness, but even too much epinephrine “in a setting of anaphylactic reaction is not going to hurt," Dr. Romanello said.

Just think of the $590 you’re saving. It will inspire you to save your child’s life without impoverishing your family.

Today, he’s U.S. Senator Joe Manchin from West Virginia, and his daughter Heather was grilled by the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday. When daughter Heather told the Congressional committee that she is coming out with a generic for half the price of $300, Utah Republican Jason Chaffetz countered that Milan would make even more of a profit because it could sell it directly to its customers.