1. Heather Bresch is an American business executive.
29 Facts About Heather Bresch
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Heather Bresch has been a central figure in two controversies: a 2007 accusation of inflating her resume with an unearned MBA degree, and as the CEO of Mylan during the 2016 controversy over pricing of the company's EpiPen products.
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Heather Bresch is the daughter of former West Virginia Governor and former US Senator Joe Manchin.
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Heather Bresch is the daughter of Gayle Conelly Manchin and Joe Manchin, who was a prominent politician throughout her childhood and was the senior United States senator from West Virginia until November 6,2024.
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Heather Bresch attended Fairmont Senior High School in Fairmont, West Virginia, and graduated from West Virginia University in 1991 with a bachelor's degree in political science and international relations.
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Heather Bresch landed her first job in 1991, working as a clerk for Mylan.
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In 2007, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that Heather Bresch had claimed to have an MBA degree from West Virginia University, but the university disputed that.
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Heather Bresch's father was governor of the state of West Virginia at the time.
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In 1992, Heather Bresch started working as a clerk in a factory owned by Mylan, a generic drug company, and rose through the company to become the chief executive officer in 2012.
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From 2002 to 2005, Heather Bresch served as Mylan's director of government relations.
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Heather Bresch contributed to the development of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003, which created Medicare Part D, a prescription-drug benefit.
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In 2006, Heather Bresch testified before the US Senate Special Committee on Aging to lobby for changes to the law that would prevent pharmaceutical companies from raising challenges to the introduction of generic competitors by filing citizen's petitions with the FDA, and that would prevent pharma companies from undercutting the profits of generic drug companies by making deals for authorized generics to be introduced.
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When Mylan expanded internationally, Heather Bresch noticed that Mylan's US-based pharmaceutical manufacturing plant had full-time staff from the Food and Drug Administration devoted to it, whereas facilities abroad had not been inspected by the FDA for more than a decade.
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Heather Bresch persuaded several of Mylan's competitors to support what became the Generic Drug User Fee Act, which she proposed to lawmakers in 2010.
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Heather Bresch has served in several executive roles at Mylan, such as senior vice president of corporate strategic development, Head of North American Operations, chief operating officer, and chief integration officer.
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Heather Bresch led the integration of Matrix Laboratories Limited and Merck KGaA's generics and specialty pharmaceutical businesses with Mylan's operations.
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Heather Bresch was chair of the Generic Pharmaceutical Association for two terms.
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Heather Bresch was appointed president of Mylan in 2009 and joined Mylan's board of directors in March 2011.
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Heather Bresch was the first female CEO of a large pharmaceutical business.
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Heather Bresch was recognized in Esquires 2011 "Patriots of the Year" list for her work pushing for the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act.
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Heather Bresch was named one of Fortune magazine's "50 Most Powerful Women In Business" in 2014.
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Heather Bresch launched an advertising campaign to increase awareness of "EpiPen" as a treatment for anaphylaxis; the company successfully lobbied the FDA to broaden the label to include risk of anaphylaxis and in parallel, successfully lobbied Congress to generate legislation making EpiPens available in schools and other public places.
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Heather Bresch hired the same lobbyists that Medtronic had used for its defibrillator legislation.
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Heather Bresch explained at the 2016 Forbes Healthcare Summit that Mylan's price increases were justified by the many improvements she claimed the company had made to the product.
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Amid this backlash, Heather Bresch led Mylan to introduce a generic version of the device which sells for half the price of the brand-name device.
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In July 2019, Heather Bresch announced that she would retire in 2020 after Mylan merged with Upjohn.
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Heather Bresch was the 2017 Albert Schweitzer Leadership Award honoree at an awards gala hosted by the Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership Foundation.
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Heather Bresch served as chair of the Generic Pharmaceutical Association's board of directors in 2016,2005, and 2004, and as vice chair in 2003 and 2006.
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Heather Bresch was previously married to West Virginia businessman Douglas Kirby.