EpiPen too expensive? You can get the same dose for ten bucks

[endicom]

American Thinker - Aug. 27, 2016

By Thomas Lifson

The only reason that prices for EpiPens could be raised is that government regulations created a captive market whose regulations required the delivery system that Mylan Labs had patented.  Epinephrine, the actual product delivered to the bloodstream is a hormone and not patentable. The ease of use of Mylan’s EpiPen is worthwhile, and can save seconds, especially if an inexperienced person is delivering the dosage.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/08/epipen_too_expensive_you_can_get_the_same_dose_for_ten_bucks.html


There is nothing new about auto-injectors so I don't know why only the Mylan product is approved.

[mountaineer]

Competition Great When Permitted
Aug 28, 2016
Mike Myer
Wheeling (WV) Intelligencer

If you like to hike, camp, fish or hunt in certain areas, you’d be well-advised to carry a snakebite kit. But how would you react if, upon going to the store for one, you found the simple equipment cost $150?

You’d shop elsewhere, in the knowledge competing companies would be offering the kits for much less.

That’s how free-market capitalism works.

So why do people with allergies so severe they must carry devices to inject themselves with epinephrine have to pay $608 for a two-pack of EpiPens from Mylan Pharmaceuticals? Did I mention the same two-pack cost $93.88 just nine years ago?

Mylan has been criticized roundly — and justly — for what it charges for the EpiPens.

Why do they charge so much? Because they can.

There is very little competition in selling such devices.

There is some. Just a few weeks ago, Consumer Reports informed readers about the Adrenaclick, similar to Mylan’s product, but available for as little as $140. It also is possible to buy your own epinephrine, your own plastic injection pen, and be safe for less than $200.

Other companies are interested in the business, too. But two of them reportedly can’t get the Food and Drug Administration to approve their products.

Ah, yes, the FDA — accused for years of throwing obstacles in the way of pharmaceuticals companies to the point that life-saving drugs have been kept off the market or made more expensive because of all the FDA hoops that have to be jumped through.

FDA bureaucrats are not the only villains. Let’s not forget the trial lawyers — you know, the folks whose commercials you see all the time on television — eager to collect eight-figure fees from lawsuits against pharmaceuticals companies and device manufacturers.

When it comes to life-saving health care technology, there is no free market protection in the United States.

So yes, the EpiPen story is outrageous. Mylan, which earned $1.2 billion in profits from the devices last year, ought to be raked over a bed of hot coals.

At the same time, however, let’s not forget those who aided and abetted the company — and let’s be glad they have nothing to do with snakebite kits.

[endicom]

The U.S. military had atropine auto-injectors 50 years ago. It's hard to believe that suitable devices are not now commodity items. Perhaps the drug laws are culpable.

[bolobaby]

Step one: everyone buy syringes and doses in the bottle instead of the epipens.

Step two: Mylan feels the crunch as demand plummets. Stock price tanks after miserable fail on earnings report.

Step three: Mylan reduces price to increase demands. Margins decrease, but revenues normalize, allowing stock price to stabilize.

Step four: Repeat if they try the same shit again.

It's that simple folks.

(Also, when prices are low, stockpile a couple pens and only use them *in lieu of* the bottled dose when absolutely necessary. Otherwise, always use the bottled dose.)

[mountaineer]

   
Manchin expects Senate to take interest in EpiPen cost after Labor Day recess
By Alex Wiederspiel | August 30, 2016 at 8:07AM
W.Va. Metro News

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — U.S. Senator Joe Manchin said he believes many of his Senate colleagues will be interested in hearing the ins and outs that have led to the price point controversy over Mylan Pharmaceutical’s EpiPen.

“By going directly to generic you cut all that out,” Manchin said. “I don’t understand it. I’m sure that I’m like my other colleagues going to find more about this and understand why there is such a differential in pricing.”

It was announced early Monday afternoon that Mylan would release a generic brand EpiPen that would cost about half of the current out-of-pocket $600 price.

“I think basically anything we can do to get prescription drug prices down–I think all prescription drug prices are extremely high,” Manchin said. “People need to have not only the access but the price points. So I think that’s great.”

Manchin’s daughter, Heather Bresch, is the CEO of Mylan and at the center of the controversy. While the cost of the EpiPen rose 500 percent since 2007, Bresch’s salary also increased exponentionally.

Bresch explained on CNBC last week that part of the price increase relates to a “broken healthcare system.” She explained that pharmacy benefit managers, insurers, wholesalers, and pharmacy retailers take in more than 50 percent of the $608 EpiPen.

“What we all saw was that [Mylan] sold it for $274, but because of it being in the brand arena–This is the things that I guess all the people in the middle got $334,” Manchin said.

Former Democratic Presidential candidate and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) criticized Mylan’s decision on the generic EpiPen–calling it a “PR move.”

The generic brand that could hit the market at a $300 cost would still be three times higher than the cost of the EpiPen in 2007–when Mylan assumed rights to the product.

According to CNN Money, Teva Pharmaceuticals is expected to launch their own generic version of the EpiPen next year, which would create additional market competition.

The Senate returns from recess following Labor Day weekend.