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Speaker 1: I'm Charlie Pellett Stocks Laura. This update is brought to
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Speaker 1: over to the first Word breaking news desk for today's
Speaker 1: afternoon call. Here he is there, he is Bill Maloney.
Speaker 1: Good afternoon, Charlie. Stocks are under pressure today, helped by
Speaker 1: declines up as much as nine percent in Deutsche Bank.
Speaker 1: About ten hedge funds are said to have cut Deutsche
Speaker 1: Bank's exposure. Dallas, currently down a hundred and sixty three points,
Speaker 1: has to be stropped sixteen and NAZAC is lower by
Speaker 1: forty the small cap SIXANDREA drops seven points, and the
Speaker 1: US ten yield at one point five six percent. Ten
Speaker 1: out of eleven sub sectors are lower, led by declines
Speaker 1: and healthcare, financials and utilities only Telecom gained, doubt, Transports
Speaker 1: game fourteen, utilities fall nine, Nazi botechs were hit hard,
Speaker 1: sink eighty four, and the vix is higher by seventeen percent.
Speaker 1: Leaders to the downside in the Dow included Goldman, Sachs, Merk,
Speaker 1: and Nike. Caterpillar led to the upside, and Jilan News.
Speaker 1: Dow Jones reported that Qualcom is said to be in
Speaker 1: talks to a quiet n XP Semiconductor n XPI gained
Speaker 1: as much as nineteen percent, and finally, Costco reports after
Speaker 1: the bell live from the first breaking news. Ask Bill Maloney, Charlotte,
Speaker 1: thank you very much. Good Maloney will be on Costco
Speaker 1: as we get those numbers and to hear live breaking
Speaker 1: news over your Bloomberg type squawk s q U A
Speaker 1: w K on your terminal stocks. Laura, I'm Charlie Pelt.
Speaker 1: That's a Bloomberg business flash. Now on Bloombern Radio, we
Speaker 1: take stock of healthcare. The tissue of drug pricing has
Speaker 1: been at the forefront, certainly in the political brown for
Speaker 1: the last few months. We're in a very special time
Speaker 1: in the history of the pharmaceutical industry. How many three
Speaker 1: percent of all biotechs that start actually get a drug approved.
Speaker 1: It's a very hard thing to do. Bloomberg takings to
Speaker 1: healthcare and focus on Bloomberg radio the prices of drugs.
Speaker 1: The EpiPen allergy shot, for example, we know, of course
Speaker 1: it's in mentioning controversy because it sells for almost as
Speaker 1: much as the latest iPhone in the United States, actually
Speaker 1: cost less than its leather case in Britain. That's just
Speaker 1: one egregious example of the kind of situations that Michael
Speaker 1: Ray faces and tries to solve with his company are
Speaker 1: X Savings Solutions, where he's founder and CEO based in
Speaker 1: Overland Park, Kansas. So, Michael, uh, it has the problem
Speaker 1: gotten less bad with so much focus on it or
Speaker 1: does it continue to you know, vexed consumers and companies? Well,
Speaker 1: I think, you know, for pleasurely with you guys, I
Speaker 1: think it continues to vex the entire market. And when
Speaker 1: you see store whereas like today, um, you start comparing
Speaker 1: to other countries that at even another level of questioning
Speaker 1: about what, um, what what a price should be. M
Speaker 1: we obviously know we've been paying and uh, you know
Speaker 1: last week my island was in front of Congress, but
Speaker 1: they didn't lower the price. You know, it's it's a
Speaker 1: public scolding, but it's not it's not change in prices.
Speaker 1: So it's concerning. Hey, Michael, you know, one of the
Speaker 1: things I want to point to out is that federal
Speaker 1: health regulators have said that my line is short change
Speaker 1: in the government on rebates for sales of EpiPen uh,
Speaker 1: despite the drugmaker having already been admonished that the way
Speaker 1: it classified the device for rebates is in correct. Can
Speaker 1: you explain what's going on? Well, I think that you know,
Speaker 1: the way rebates work is very complex. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: you can call rebates can be called different things. Um,
Speaker 1: they can be called access fees, formulary formulary tr fees,
Speaker 1: they can be called mark could share. But the but
Speaker 1: the you know, at the end of the day, it's
Speaker 1: money that's promised to go back to whoever the payer is,
Speaker 1: in this case the federal government. Um. You know, if
Speaker 1: if that is the case and that's found out to
Speaker 1: be be true, UM, I suspect more problems from Island.
Speaker 1: So tell us more about how your company is working
Speaker 1: to solve this problem. Yeah, great, great question. Um. You know, so,
Speaker 1: really what we're trying to do is we're trying to
Speaker 1: put information in the hands of consumers. Americans are you know,
Speaker 1: really good consumers and nearly everything they buy except prescription drugs.
Speaker 1: And the reason that they're not is not because they
Speaker 1: don't want to, it's because it's too hard. Um, there's
Speaker 1: there's a lack of information available. UM, there's certain players
Speaker 1: in the supply chain that that wants, UM, you know,
Speaker 1: access to certain information so that so that you know,
Speaker 1: consumer will buy an f depen instead of another product
Speaker 1: on the market, UM, another FNF from product that maybe
Speaker 1: a third of the price. And so you know, what
Speaker 1: we really try to do is put that information back
Speaker 1: in the hands consumers, let them know about all of
Speaker 1: their options, and in turn they act more like consumers.
Speaker 1: They save money, the health plan saves money, and their
Speaker 1: employers saves money. So what the people who use an EpiPen,
Speaker 1: what do they take away from this? Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: it's a great, great question, and I think that um,
Speaker 1: you know, this is something that's been missing from the
Speaker 1: conversation is the fact that there is an F and
Speaker 1: F from product available. It's an auto injector product. Um,
Speaker 1: it's a fraction of the price to EpiPen, and most
Speaker 1: people just don't even know that they have that choice
Speaker 1: miland was very effective the same. And what about the cost,
Speaker 1: because I know that I was looking at the cost
Speaker 1: of the EpiPen. It now sells for more than six
Speaker 1: hundred dollars per two pack, or more than three dollars
Speaker 1: a piece. Obviously, when they bought this product back in
Speaker 1: two thousand and seven, they saw they were selling this
Speaker 1: product was selling for fifty seven dollars each. Yeah, So
Speaker 1: I think that there's there's really two important points there.
Speaker 1: The first is UM, you know, they rose prices because
Speaker 1: they thought they could UM and in a free market,
Speaker 1: you know, we reward stockholders for that. On the flip side, UM,
Speaker 1: a lot of information has been withheld from from you
Speaker 1: health plans, employers and their consumers, and so really we
Speaker 1: want to put that information back in the hands of
Speaker 1: the consumer. They can pay half the price that they
Speaker 1: would otherwise for nepeten. And something that we've been doing
Speaker 1: for a couple of years is we've seen this happen,
Speaker 1: is we've been moving and getting that information out to
Speaker 1: our users where they're paying ten dollar co pays for
Speaker 1: a generic from product instead of six price tech that
Speaker 1: the pharmacy counter for the branded so that there's a
Speaker 1: really big difference and that information needs to get to people.
Speaker 1: It sounds like, uh, do you see more, um more
Speaker 1: of the kind of thing you do being done in
Speaker 1: the in the industry by other companies as well? You know,
Speaker 1: I haven't heard of anyone else doing it yet. I suspect,
Speaker 1: you know, there's a lot of interest in this um
Speaker 1: and and one of the things that we take some
Speaker 1: pride in is we do have a granted patent for
Speaker 1: the process, so we think but it's a bit unique,
Speaker 1: and we really want to advocate for the people who
Speaker 1: haven't had the representation for a long time. That's consumers,
Speaker 1: that's their their employers, and the health plans that largely
Speaker 1: have been taken out of the equation in a lot
Speaker 1: of cases. Thank you very much for joining us. Michael
Speaker 1: Ray is the founder and the chief executive of our
Speaker 1: ex Savings Solutions based in Overland Park, Kansas. Of course
Speaker 1: is our healthcare segment. And just to give you an
Speaker 1: update on the EpiPen program, Senate staffers and two U
Speaker 1: S senators have called for an increased investigation of the
Speaker 1: classification of EpiPens. You're listening to taking stock This is Bloomberg, Bloomber.
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