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ToquiNotes: The End of Mylan, the Wealthy Departure of Former CEO, and the Stink Surrounding Closure

By Jeff Toquinto on July 31, 2021 from ToquiNotes via Connect-Bridgeport.com

EDITOR'S NOTE: WDTV is reporting that the CISA designation below may have been granted. You can click HERE to read their report, which - by their own words - does not have a definitive answer as to what it means. However, it could be good news. Also, as of 2:45 p.m. today, Saturday, July 31, there was no official words from the offices of Joe Manchin, Shelley Moore Capito or David McKinley.
 
I am not naïve enough to believe I know the intricacies of the business world to tell you if what is supposed to be today’s official closure of Mylan Pharmaceuticals could have been avoided. I am smart enough to know not only does the entire thing smell, but a whole lot of people I know – you know – are being impacted in career jobs.
 
Today is the announced day for the official closure of the generic drug colossus. Many have already gone.  My social media feeds have been filled for the last several days with people thanking co-workers for years, some for decades, of being able to work with them.
 
There was something else in the majority of the posts – they thanked the late Mike Puskar. He was one of the cofounders of the company that traces its roots back to the early 1960s and the start of its Morgantown facility back to the mid-1960s.
 
The sad irony is Puskar could not acknowledge any of it. He passed away in 2011 after facing health issues and several years after he gave up his control of the company.
 
Maybe he did not know it at the time and, perhaps, the new person in charge and those making the decisions did not know it, but that turning over of control was likely the beginning of the end.
 
The official end is today. The hammer to nail the coffin shut was raised in 2020 after a merger with Upjohn that created a new company – Viatris Inc. On Dec. 11, Viatris announced the Morgantown facility was closing down.
 
Merry Christmas to 1,400-plus workers, their families, and the entire region. And Merry Christmas to the nation’s largest generic drug manufacturer shutting down.
 
Sure, some executive sporting a nice suit and tie from Viatris will tell you those generic drugs being produced will still be fine. And maybe if things work out, from a literal standpoint, the drug production will be fine.
 
The sad part is that the work, the jobs are heading overseas. During a time when the nation’s drug infrastructure is more critical than ever before, the big dog in the generic manufacturing business has been put down. Laid to rest smack in the middle of a pandemic.
 
According to a Vanity Fair article, which I will be getting back to more than once, the plant annually made 20 billion doses – many very high-profile medicines – and of that total 17 billion was utilized in the United States.
 
This makes the problem two-fold. There is absolutely no way Morgantown and the North Central Part of the state and beyond are not going to be impacted like this. The economic impact has to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars and that will hit home – and yes right here in Harrison County as well.
 
How many people do you know locally working there? I know plenty. You do too.
 
Their future is up in the air. These were not only good paying jobs with benefits, but they were also careers. Anyone think there are 1,000-plus jobs matching the labor force’s skill set or those who have the ability to convert to a new skill set available tomorrow in the immediate area?
 
There is not.
 
The other problem that bothers me on the two-fold front is where is Congress in all of this? How does this plant, again during a pandemic producing generic drugs that already see the majority produced outside our border, not qualify as critical infrastructure? How did it not get saved by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency that recently saved a plant producing a key antibiotic in Tennessee?
 
I do not have the answer. Vanity Fair hinted at one that is nauseating.
 
The article suggests Senator Joe Manchin, the Democratic Senator who is literally the swing vote on every critical piece of legislation being pushed by the administration of President Joe Biden, might be paying for not towing the line.
 
Is that true? I do not want to believe our elected leaders in Washington can be that shallow. The fact of the matter is we know our elected leaders are shallow and we all know – if all those bound by their political ideology had a truth gun pointed at the heads would agree – the shallowness is a pandemic in place for decades engulfing both sides of the aisle.
 
You can decide if you want to believe that scenario has merit. I am simply pointing out what Vanity Fair suggests as a possibility. And I am sure what people will believe will likely be shaped on the same political value system they hold as noted above since no truth gun is pointed to their head. It is the reason our country is at a divisive gridlock.
 
Manchin’s impact on the situation can be debated. A person very close to the Senator’s involvement with Mylan, however, is a little harder to debate.
 
That person would be Heather Bresch. The last name might not sound familiar, but it used to be Manchin – as in the daughter of Joe Manchin.
 
Forget for the moment her title as past Mylan CEO. Forget that West Virginia University actually stripped her of an MBA she claimed she earned that led to the resignation of WVU’s president. Forget efforts to explain to the U.S. House Oversight Committee how under her watch Mylan’s EpiPen – needed by countless individuals to feel a sense of security to live – skyrocketed in price upwards of 500 percent from 2009 to 2016, according to Business Insider.com. Even forget she was not in place when the new company was formed.
 
Remember this, as I am sure everyone with Mylan who is already gone, leaving today, or left during her time there, she became exorbitantly wealthy. That happened despite the phony MBA, despite the EpiPen debacle, and so much more than any quick Google News search will provide.
 
How much money? If you think the EpiPen price increase nearing the range of 500 percent was bad, consider what NBC News reported in an August 2016 article. The article stated in 2007 she was compensated by Mylan at $2,453,456. In 2015, the number was at $18,931,068. The math in the article states that is a 671 percent increase.
 
Even if it is slightly off base, it is disgraceful, especially in light of the current situation where workers get a severance package and a kick out the door. It should be noted again that Bresch actually left after the merger with Upjohn was announced as on the way.
 
Bresch’s severance package?
 
That earlier Vanity Fair article says it stood at $30.8 million, calling it a “golden parachute,” which certainly meets the definition. Perhaps that is one of many reasons I did not see anyone thanking her for their time at Mylan.
 
It all boils down to money, It always does.
 
Bresch and the other Mylan leaders left with tens of millions and a secure future. Now, as this new company that I do not even want to print is in the midst of a worldwide restructuring to cut costs, the shareholder will land more money and an even more secure future.
 
Of the 1,400 people who walked out, or will walk out, the doors for the final time, I am betting the majority of them are not nearly as secure and it is probable none of them have millions to fall back on.
 
To my friends who face an uncertain future, my hope is for a brighter one. For those I do not know, the same holds true.
 
I cannot say for sure if what happened had to happen or even if it had to happen in the manner in which it did, because after all, I’m just a local guy and a hack who has had the feeling since this came to light something is not right.  
 
What I can tell you with a good degree of certainty is it stinks. And the odor comes from the top.


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