Severe allergies are nothing to mess around with. They can turn any moment into a life-threatening situation at the drop of a hat. You have to be prepared for the worst. The cost of being prepared, however, has just gone through the roof.
Pharmaceutical company Mylan is jacking up the price of their EpiPen to new levels, starting at $500. An EpiPen is an auto-injecting device containing epinephrine used when a person is experiencing anaphylaxis.
In 2008, the EpiPen was sold for $100. That’s a 400 percent markup.
Families across the country are scrambling to find ways to afford the steep price before sending their kids back to school, or worse, realizing they can’t and hoping an emergency doesn’t happen. Those are their only options.
Nowhere To Turn
There are no generic versions of the EpiPen, and it’s largest competitor, Sanofi’s Auvi-Q, was discontinued last year after dosage problems led to a major recall. Mylan now has a near monopoly on the product.
During this public outcry, Mylan reminds their consumers of their savings plan. The company’s $0 co-pay card cuts the out-of-pocket cost by about $100. For people with good insurance plans with low co-pays, the program helps a lot. For people with high-deductible plans or no insurance at all, they’re out of luck.
EpiPens come with an expiration date of one year, meaning that even if you’re lucky enough not to have a severe allergic reaction, you’ll still have to keep paying for it annually.
According to Slate, 3.6 million people have an EpiPen prescription. That’s 3.6 million people who didn’t choose to have a severe allergy, yet are paying hundreds of dollars because of it.
This is, of course, just for one pen. For parents with children who have allergies, they’ll ideally want at least one for their child and one for them, if not more. The total cost of being prepared really adds up.
Leaders And Experts Weigh In
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, told NBC News:
“The drug industry’s greed knows no bounds. There’s no reason an EpiPen, which costs Mylan just a few dollars to make, should cost families more than $600. The only explanation for Mylan raising the price by six times since 2009 is that the company values profits more than the lives of millions of Americans.”
Allergy specialist Dr. Douglas McMahon agrees with Sanders:
“When epinephrine only costs a few cents, but they’re going up to $500, personally I don’t think that’s ethically responsible.”
Featured image via Greg Friese at Flickr available under a CC Attribution-ShareAlike license.
