UPDATE: EpiPen Crisis may have an answer...
Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, is offering an alternative to the Mylan epinephrine auto-injecto EpiPen. The FDA has approved, for market a direct generic competitor of the Epi-Pen device. There is a version for pediatric patients, a generic EpiPen Jr. In an emergency situation an auto-inject device is use to deliver a single dose of epinephrine, directly into the suffer's thigh. This attempt to stop the deadly allergic - anaphylactic shock - reaction, if vital to the suffer's survival. Without it they die.
READ MORE: Years after Mylan’s epic EpiPen price hikes, it finally gets a generic rival
EpiPEN : Highway Robbery
The manufacturer of the EpiPen - the #1 lifesaving device used in the need of immediate injections of epinephrin for prevention of anaphylaxis, Mylan Sucrit has raised the price to over $400 USD / unit (pen). And in many countries ONLY sell in 2-pak containers.
As if the pricing were not enough of an issue epinephrine has a shelf-life of only 18 months! So EpiPens must be replaced every two years.
The pricing in the 1990’s was roughly $25 USD per Pen. Mylan purchased the original pharmaceutical manufacturer of EpiPen (2007) then gradually raised the list price from approximately $50 per auto-injector to over $600 for the, in many places, manditory - two-pack unit. This one move boosted EpiPen profits to $1.1 billion a year.
The pure greed move put 10’s of thousands of lives at risk. How much lower can the pharmaceutical manufacturing element go? I’m sure they’ll find a way down.
-- UPDATE --
See article DAILY GASP 08.20.18 for an update on the EpiPen crisis... a bit of relief.
