Two good wins

TV and EpiPens

Over 100,000 people in NC need one of these:

This is an EpiPen. It’s for people with severe allergic reactions, the kind you can die from.

If you feel a reaction starting, you’re supposed to grab one, inject it into your thigh, and call 911. It’s supposed to keep you alive until the ambulance arrives.

But:

The company that sells them, we believe, was breaking the law to keep prices high.

In 2007, a two-pack of EpiPens cost about $100 and by 2016, it was $600.

That’s six times the price in nine years.

Here’s how we believe they did it:

First, when a cheaper, generic version was about to hit the market, they paid the middlemen who decide which drugs get covered by insurance to keep the generic off the list. (PBMs strike again…)

Second, they used the patent system to delay competitors from even getting to market.

And third, they ran marketing campaigns making misleading claims about the generics that did exist.

The combined effect of all this meant less competition, which let them charge higher prices.

So we went to the company, Mylan, and said, “We think we have evidence you’ve been breaking the law and overcharging people in North Carolina, including the state itself.”

And now we’ve announced an $11m dollar settlement with them. A chunk of money is going back to state taxpayers because a lot of these EpiPens were purchased with state money for people who otherwise couldn’t have paid for them. That’s why I’m standing with Treasurer Brad Briner in the photo above - the Treasurer runs the State Health Plan, which got a payment from our settlement.

Two important notes on this:

First, our $11m was just for NC, other states are doing their own lawsuits, and there was also a major class action lawsuit. So there’s more accountability than just our effort.

Second, in addition to the $11m, the company must now lower out-of-pocket costs for people buying the generic version going forward - and that’s for everyone across the country.

Good win.

Our big TV case

I gave you first part of this story a month ago. Quick recap and then the latest.

The biggest TV company in America is called Nexstar.

It owns about 200 stations, including Fox, ABC, CBS, and NBC affiliates all across the country.

Nexstar is trying to buy the third-biggest TV company, called Tegna.

The combined company would be - by far - the largest TV company in American history. It would reach 80% of American homes. No single company has ever controlled that much broadcast television.

In addition to giving one company enormous control over the local news Americans watch, the merger would also likely mean higher cable bills and layoffs in local newsrooms.

No big mystery how this would work.

Let’s say Nexstar goes from owning your local Fox station to also owning your local CBS station. You would have fewer choices, so they could charge more. They would also have more people in the same area doing reporting, so they could cut back on reporters.

This is especially important to North Carolina because we’d be the third-most impacted state in the country. Nexstar and Tegna both have a major presence here:

There’s a strong argument this is illegal media consolidation.

The federal government has a standard way of measuring whether a merger concentrates too much power in one company. When a merger pushes concentration past a certain threshold and increases it by more than 100 points, it’s presumed illegal. In every single NC market affected by this deal, the merger doesn’t just cross the legal threshold, it obliterates it:

So a few weeks ago, I joined a bipartisan coalition of AGs and we filed a lawsuit to block the merger.

But then - as I told you at the time - things took a turn.

The moment we filed our lawsuit, Nexstar hit the gas to try to close the deal before a court could stop them. Less than 24 hours after we filed, the FCC, which would normally block a merger like this, suddenly waived its rules and let it happen. Then USDOJ gave its approval.

For all of that to happen in 24 hours is very strange.

Then Nexstar tried to declare victory and said the deal was done.

So we filed an emergency motion that basically said: “Hey judge, they’re trying to get around you. They know the law isn’t on their side, and the last thing they want is for you to hear our case. That’s exactly why you should. Let’s hit pause before you let them become the biggest local TV company in American history.”

Well, the judge just ruled, and we won - the emergency motion, not the whole case.

That means the court issued a preliminary injunction freezing the merger. Nexstar and Tegna have to keep operating as separate companies, with separate management and separate newsrooms, while our case plays out.

Now we get to make our full case, and we’ve got a strong one.

Another good win - but this case is just beginning.

All for now. Working on some interesting stuff to report to you next week.

Best,

Jeff Jackson