UPDATE 2-New York investigating Mylan EpiPen contracts for schools
(Adds comment from Mylan, quotes)
WASHINGTON, Sept 6 (Reuters) - New York is investigating whether Mylan Pharmaceuticals violated antitrust laws in its contracts to provide EpiPens to some school systems, state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in a statement on Tuesday.
A person briefed on the matter said Schneiderman's office has subpoenaed documents from Mylan over the EpiPen program.
"If Mylan engaged in anti-competitive business practices, or violated antitrust laws with the intent and effect of limiting lower cost competition, we will hold them accountable," Schneiderman said in a statement.
"Allergy sufferers have enough concerns to worry about -- the availability of life-saving medical treatment should not be one of them," he said.
There have been allegations that schools which used Mylan's EpiPen4Schools program, which gives many schools the devices for free, were contractually barred from buying products from Mylan competitors for a year. Senators Richard Blumenthal and Amy Klobuchar asked the Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday to investigate the claims.
Mylan did not address possible antitrust implications in a statement issued on Tuesday, but said it had already scrapped some contractual restrictions. It also said it had provided 700,000 of the devices free of charge to some 65,000 schools.
"Previously, schools who wished to purchase EpiPen Auto-Injectors beyond those they were eligible to receive free under the program could elect to do so at a certain discount level with a limited purchase restriction, but such restriction no longer remains," spokeswoman Lauren Kashtan said in an emailed statement.
Mylan has been criticized - including by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton - for sharp price increases for EpiPens, often carried by people with life-threatening allergies. Mylan raised the price from about $100 in 2008 to about $600 currently. The company has offered some discounts but this has done little to allay concerns.
(Reporting by Diane Bartz and David Shepardson; editing by David Gregorio and Tom Brown)
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