RALEIGH — A two-pack of EpiPens cost about $100 in 2007. By 2016, it was $600.

Last week, North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson announced an $11 million settlement with Mylan, the exclusive U.S. marketer and distributor of EpiPen Auto-Injectors, to recover money North Carolina overpaid because of those price increases. The State Health Plan and North Carolina Medicaid will each receive $4.2 million.

“They used their control of the market to keep competitors out and drive the price up,” Jackson said. “That’s not legal. We made them pay it back.”

The State Health Plan covers more than 750,000 teachers, troopers, state employees, retirees and their families. Last year, over 10,000 members filled at least one prescription for an epinephrine auto-injector.

“To have our hardworking state employees and taxpayers across North Carolina be overcharged for a lifesaving drug is unconscionable,” N.C. Treasurer Brad Briner said. “Every little bit helps when it comes to funding for our State Health Plan, and efforts like this one keep us on the right track toward controlling healthcare costs for our members.”

The settlement resolves allegations that Mylan used anti-competitive tactics to maintain its dominance and raise prices, including paying pharmacy benefit managers to keep generics off preferred drug lists, delaying generic competitors from reaching the market and making misleading claims about competing products.

It also resolves allegations that Mylan misclassified EpiPen under the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program and forced consumers to buy two-packs they did not always need.

“People with life-threatening allergies need the medications that will save their lives, and for most people, that’s an auto injector,” said Dr. Austin Lucke, an emergency medicine doctor in eastern North Carolina. “Affordable access to this medication can be lifesaving. The inability to afford it can be fatal, particularly in our most vulnerable, including pediatric populations.”

Mylan has agreed to increase its co-pay coupon for the authorized generic version of EpiPen from $25 to $40, which will lower out-of-pocket costs.

This settlement is part of Jackson's continuing work on prescription drug prices. In February, he reached two settlements totaling $17.85 million with Lannett and Bausch over generic drug price-fixing. He has also joined a bipartisan group of attorneys general pushing the U.S. Department of Labor to require pharmacy benefit managers to disclose how they make money.

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