[2] Previously, the company was domiciled in the Netherlands, with principal executive offices in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, UK[3] and a "Global Center" in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, US.

[10] The company was founded in 1961 and developed and produced medicines for a wide range of medical disciplines, including oncology, anaphylaxis, antiretrovirals, cardiovascular, respiratory, dermatology, immunology, anesthesia and pain management, infectious disease, gastroenterology, diabetology/endocrinology, and women's healthcare.

Finally in 2004 it moved to a new office center in nearby Southpointe, a suburban business park located in the Pittsburgh suburb of Cecil Township.

[17] The company discontinued operating as a contract manufacturing organization in 1980 and instead chose to market their products under their own "Mylan-labeled" brand.

[26] However, the company's patents on the drug were declared invalid in court, and its marketing exclusivity expired in 1987, prompting a rush of generic competition.

[33] In 1996, the company acquired UDL Laboratories, a supplier of unit dose generic medications to institutional and long-term care facilities.

The case was settled in 2000, with the company paying a total of $147M -- $100M in disgorged profits into a fund to reimburse consumers and state agencies that had overpaid, $8 million in attorney's fees to the State Attorneys General, $35 million, plus $4 million in attorney's fees, to settle certain class actions with insurers and managed care organizations—and Mylan and three ingredient suppliers (Cambrex Corporation, Profarmaco S.R.L., and Gyma Laboratories) also agreed to an injunction barring them from entering into similar anticompetitive agreements in the future.

It was at the time the largest-ever takeover in the Indian pharma industry[43] and also gave access to markets in China, India, and Africa.

[63] In February 2015, in a tax inversion, the company acquired the generic drugs business in developed markets of Abbott Laboratories for $5.3 billion in stock.

[64][65] Also in February 2015, the company acquired Mumbai-based Famy Care and expand its presence in the market for women's contraceptives at about $750 million.

[66][67] In April 2015, the company attempted a hostile takeover of Perrigo, offering to buy $26 billion in shares directly from shareholders.

[71] In July, Teva dropped its bid for Mylan and instead acquired Allergan's generic drug business for about the same price.

The complaint alleged price collusion schemes between six pharmaceutical firms including informal gatherings, telephone calls, and text messages.

Approximately three months later, Credit Suisse analyst Vamil Divan cited IMS Health data which showed that the new generic accounted for 10% of the market.

[79] In 2018, valsartan manufactured by the company was voluntarily recalled due to the detection of trace amounts of N-nitrosodiethylamine (NDEA) which is a probable human carcinogen.

The following is an illustration of the company's major mergers and acquisitions and historical predecessors: Mylan acquired the right to market and distribute the EpiPen line of epinephrine autoinjector devices from Merck KGaA as part of their 2007 deal;[90] that right had formerly been held by Dey LP, a wholly owned subsidiary of Merck.

[49] Bresch, the company's CEO, saw an opportunity to increase sales through marketing and advocacy, and the company launched a marketing campaign to increase awareness of the dangers of anaphylaxis for people with severe allergies that made the brand "EpiPen" as identified with its product as "Kleenex" is with facial tissue.

The company also 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 in public places like defibrillators are, and hired the same people that Medtronic had worked with on defibrillator legislation to do so.

[49] Mylan's efforts to gain market dominance were aided when Sanofi's competing product was recalled in November 2015 and further when Teva's generic competitor was rejected by the FDA in March 2016.

[95] The reporter noted that "Those top leaders’ responses are a far cry from the message on Mylan’s website, which says that 'we challenge every member of every team to challenge the status quo,' and that 'we put people and patients first, trusting that profits will follow'", and also noted that "The firm is a case study in the limits of what consumer and employee activism, as well as government oversight, can achieve.

"[95][96][97][98] In the summer of 2016, as parents prepared to send their children back to school and went to pharmacies to get new EpiPens, people began to express outrage at the cost of the EpiPen and the company was widely and harshly criticized,[99][100] including criticism from Martin Shkreli, "poster boy for grasping pharma greed," letters from two senators and initiation of Congressional investigations.

[102][103][104] The last price increase coincided with the company's airing of a new line of TV commercials that were described as "shocking" and "no holds barred", depicting an anaphylactic reaction from the point of view of the young woman having it at a party, and ending with the young woman seeing her swollen and hive-covered face in the mirror before she collapses.

[105] In response to criticism, the company increased financial assistance available for some patients to purchase EpiPens,[106] a gesture that was called a "classic public relations move" by Harvard Medical School professor Aaron Kesselheim.

[111] In September 2016, a Silicon Valley engineering consultancy performed a teardown analysis of the EpiPen and estimated the manufacturing and packaging costs at about $10 for a two-pack.

[112] According to the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General analysis, the U.S. government may have overpaid "as much as $1.27 billion between 2006 and 2016" to the company for the EpiPen emergency allergy treatment.

[115] Simultaneously with the settlement, the company also announced it was being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission related to the drug rebate program.

Former CEO Robert Coury received a $98 million 2016 pay package in spite of shareholder losses and the perceived harm to the company inflicted by the EpiPen controversies.

The company said that its distribution was "legally compliant," [119] and that their restrictions did "prohibit resale to correctional facilities for use in lethal injections.