The scandal connected to Mylan and EpiPen’s pricing was caused by recurrent price increases imposed by the company. This had a serious impact on the market and on the people who needed EpiPen the most but could not afford it due to a sky-high price. The public outburst made the company review its pricing policy, but the way in which the company managed its marketing, financial, and pricing approaches is exceptional. The current paper explores the strategies that were adopted by the company and provides a critique of their perilous elements. The analysis is based on the factual data and reflects the premises that led to the transformation of Mylan into an undisputed leader and authoritarian pharmaceutical company. Regardless, this severe approach became both a strength and a weakness for the company, and this will be discussed further in the paper.
When it comes to marketing, the acquisition of EpiPen by Mylan became one of the key events in the history of the company. Before this, the company did not represent a serious threat to the market, and its approaches were relatively generic. According to the case study, Mylan managed to win over the market and make the most out of their children-focused strategy (3). In addition to this, the company exploited the healthcare legislation and bypassed several limitations that were not provided by the existing laws. Another important fact is that the company made the best use of the DTCPA (Direct-to-Consumer Pharmaceutical Advertising) and naturally eliminated numerous medics out of the medication prescription equation. As it is accurately highlighted in the case study, Mylan spent huge amounts of money to promote its newly acquired product regardless of the controversy and mistrust (4). If we connect this to the company’s marketing strategy, we will be able to see that Mylan’s brand image was critically influenced by their approach to business.
Nonetheless, Mylan was able to evade the pitfalls in the form of popular hatred and disrespect from other pharmacological companies. Another definitive characteristic of the marketing strategy of the company is that Mylan was able to increase the price almost 20 times during the nine-year acquisition period. These increases were implemented in a constant, even oppressive manner with the intention of subduing the market. To say the least, the company was able not only to increase the price but also the frequency of price increases. Single leadership led to the monopolization of the production of EpiPen and the establishment of an in-house marketing campaign. Moreover, as mentioned in the case study, one of the key advantages of Mylan was that they had almost no competitors (4). This allowed the company to increase the price painlessly as they knew that the public will still purchase their product regardless of the price. Moreover, despite the hatred, Mylan still boasted an extensive portfolio of medications and manifested a strong presence in a rather large number of countries all over the world.
Also, the fact that the company did not have serious competitors positively impacted their financial status. All interest from sales went to Mylan, and nobody could interfere with it. Most competitors were eliminated because of non-sterile products. Their generic production was of decent quality, but it did not stand any competition with Mylan’s EpiPen. There were several companies that could pose a threat to Mylan, but they did not have enough power and acceptance of competing with the pharmaceutical mogul. Nonetheless, according to the case study, the competitors that managed to survive were ignored by the customers due to the fact that the former used a different design of the applicator (4). This critical difference between the EpiPen and its replicas put Mylan on top of the financial charts. The company challenged the applications of other companies and remained the only company to produce epinephrine injectors.
The results of the case study showed that Mylan became a successful monopoly and held more than 90% of unit sales (4). It is hard to believe, but due to its highly-qualified employees, the company was able not only to improve its position in the market but also to succeed financially despite various obstacles. The financial strategy of the company was based on constant acquisitions of the most promising rivals. This strategy extended to the companies outside the United States as well. One of the businesses was even located in the Netherlands. As claimed by the authors of the case study, Mylan switched to the Dutch business environment because it featured lower taxes and a corporate governance regime that was rather responsive to the management of the company (5). The so-called tax evasion was accomplished by means of complex manipulations with the laws, but the company succeeded. This corporate inversion perfectly reflects the aggressive approach that was developed and adopted by the CEO of Mylan. In the face of its visible stringency and irrationality, the financial strategy of the company became its bargaining chip.
Even though the changes were considered unpatriotic by the customers, the company was able to experience significant output growth and did not hesitate to raise the price, considering the fact that it did not have any rivals. This business outlook perfectly combines with the financial and marketing strategies that were mentioned earlier. Moreover, despite corporate inversion being rather common nowadays, Mylan was largely criticized for not paying its share to the US budget. Interestingly, this did not affect Mylan, and the company is still at the top of the charts. Expiring patents and pending litigations slowed the company, but the company’s management is steadily driving its own line and does not pay attention to low-arching risk probabilities. According to the case study, the pricing strategy of the company was largely influenced by the supply chain and its complexity (7).
Its vertical directivity is one of the key strengths of Mylan that support the current approach to the pricing strategy. On a bigger scale, the company ignored the rest of the market and was adamant about the pricing policy. This became one of the reasons why Mylan currently has so many loyal followers and ardent haters at the same time. Ultimately, this led to a situation where price increases were no longer justified, and the company prioritized its profits over the customers’ needs. In the future, Mylan may encounter a situation where it will be oppressed by specific government regulations. Besides, the company’s pricing strategy will be affected significantly if it loses the majority of its patents on a variety of medications. Based on the information discussed above, I can conclude that regardless of the communal dislike, the company manages to evade business obstacles and stay afloat efficiently. Within the current business environment, such an approach of the CEO of Mylan can be regarded as a skillful manipulation of existing legislation and available resources.