Epipen Auto-Injector

Initially, from 2000 to 2001 the amount of money that was spent on prescription drugs had risen by nearly 20 percent as the cost of medication also rose. Lawmakers looked at different strategies such as including the drugs in medicare or having them be sold over the counter as insurers and consumers struggled to pay (Steinhauer). This substantial increase in drug cost did not go unnoticed. As the rising costs of drugs were passed onto insurers, they looked for solutions. One large California health insurer, Wellpoint Health Networks, saw a solution in having more drugs sold without prescriptions. The California insurer argued that top allergy drugs should be made more widely available and cheaper, and selling Claritin, Allegra, and Zyrtec, three top allergy drugs, over the counter would accomplish both of those things (Petersen “A Push to Sell”). Manufacturers argued against them, saying that such a move would be dangerous to the consumer, forcing them to diagnose themselves rather than have a professional do it for them. Some news in pharmaceuticals, however, had to do with criminal activities. The United States Food and Drug Administration investigated multiple cases of counterfeit drugs. In each of the three cases, the drugs were extremely expensive, one used by AIDS patients, another a growth hormone for people who cannot produce enough

In 2007, the Mylan pharmaceutical company purchased the rights to the EpiPen. The drug inside the EpiPen is Epinephrine, which is a synthetic adrenaline that is used to treat possible anaphylaxis shock caused by allergies. “Evidence-based guidelines recommend the prompt administration of epinephrine as first-line treatment for an anaphylactic episode” (Dinakar, 2012). Millions depend on carrying the drug to live a normal life. Currently the EpiPen has no

Halloween 2004: Six year old Austin O’Toole received a Snickers Bar, which he devoured in one large bight. Immediately, he began to feel tingling in his lips and a lump in his throat, strangling the air from his lungs. Within minutes, he passed out. Austin awoke hours later in the hospital after suffering anaphylactic shock triggered by an allergic reaction to peanuts. To avert another anaphylaxis attack, Austin always carries an epinephrine injector, which is commonly referred to as an EpiPen. An epinephrine syringe injects adrenaline, a chemical, which thins blood and opens up air passages into the lungs. EpiPen had a longtime monopoly on the epinephrine injector market, but its monopoly recently ended. The EpiPen market failure was produced by inconsistent Food and Drug Administration regulations, which restricted potential competitors from entering the market, causing EpiPen to have a monopoly on the epinephrine injector market. To address the market failure and prevent EpiPen from abusing its monopoly power by raising prices, Congress passed the Combination Product Regulatory Fairness Act, facilitating the FDA combination drug approval process. The bill has resulted in more competitors entering the market, ending EpiPen’s monopoly and forcing EpiPen to offer a more affordable product.

According to a 2016 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association addressing the question of why the United States has such high drug prices, and offering some possible short-term solutions to the problem, since 2009, when a two-pack of EpiPen sold for $100, the price has increased about 500% (although the price varies among pharmacies).

Function: The use of the Epipen is to create adrenaline. Adrenaline relieves the symptoms of anaphylaxis by opening airways, constricting blood vessels to stop the drop in blood pressure, and preventing the body from releasing more allergic chemicals that are causing the symptoms. Most individuals with anaphylaxis require an epinephrine autoinjector which automatically injects the substance via needle into the thigh.

This meant it could exercise its government monopoly when it bought the drug and device from Merck and started marketing the EpiPen in 2007. Many auto injectors have come and gone but Mylan has cornered the market here in the U.S. Mylan truly became synonymous with the Epiepen when when President Barack Obama signed a bill in 2013 incentivizing schools to stock epinephrine, it was called the "EpiPen Law." Mylan lobbied heavily for that bill yet according to Mylans CEO Heather Bresch a broken health system that has let deductibles and copays skyrocket on many insurance policies. If deductibles had stayed low, parents and other EpiPen users probably wouldn’t have noticed that Mylan had increased the price of a two-injector set from around $100 seven years ago to more than $600 this spring. The Medical Device Excise Tax Section 4191 of the Internal Revenue Code imposes an excise tax on the sale of certain medical devices by the manufacturer or importer of the device. On Dec. 5, 2012, the IRS and the Department of the Treasury issued final regulations on the new 2.3-percent medical device excise tax (IRC §4191) that manufacturers and importers began to pay on their sales of certain medical devices starting in

There are often expenses that are not planned for, especially when it comes to healthcare. Recently, there has been a spike in the cost of a commonly-used device to treat many severe allergic reactions: The EpiPen. The EpiPen is an epinephrine auto-injector that is used to treat anaphylactic shock. Anaphylactic shock is “a severe, potentially life-threatening allergic reaction that occurs within seconds or minutes of exposure to an allergen” (Mayo). A pack of two EpiPens can cost around six-hundred dollars, while it only costs around fifteen dollars to create one. (Mangan) Since Mylan NV, the maker of EpiPens, “acquired the rights to the drug in 2007, it’s raised the per-dose list price from about $50 a shot to $304... The EpiPen now generates about $1 billion a year for Mylan” (). In addition, in 2013, the U.S. government “passed a law that gave funding preferences for asthma treatment grants to states that maintained an emergency supply of EpiPens” (NYTimes). The distribution of the product is definitively limited to those willing and able to pay a copious sum for a drug that might save one’s life. Therefore, a solution to this limitation must be made in order to produce more adequate healthcare.The Epipen distribution system can be fixed in a variety of ways that benefit either the consumer or the company, but still result in an increase in the number of people who can access the medicine, which is important for many reasons. The best solution to this situation would

The rise in drug prices is causing the public to ask why this is so and why there isn’t anything being done, or what the reason could be for sky high prices. Some of the reasons include pharmaceutical companies setting their drug prices

An epi-pen is typically used when a person has an allergic reaction to a substance or material. An Epi-Pen contains a drug known as epinephrine. Epinephrine is a synthetic version of adrenaline. Allergies stresses the body, consecutively, impeding the person to breath. With adrenaline from the epinephrine the body will have a burst of energy helping the body to process everything rapidly and making the person able to breathe again. In the text “How 12 EpiPens Saves My Life” the author Ali Jafee establishes common ground, uses real life occurrence to establish credibility and appeals to the audience emotions through her ongoing encounters with the Epi-pen for the purpose of delivering a message of how essential epinephrine is for those who have allergies.

Prescription drug prices rose three times faster than inflation in the decade between 1981 and 1991, making the pharmaceutical industry the nation's most profitable business. Prescription drugs even exceeded the rapidly rising inflation rate for all other medical services. They now represent at least 10% of all the medical

Dear councilmen of tallahassee please imagine, Young Jack McBride in the middle of a library ,with a rash on his face and gasping for breath. He gasped out “ I need an epipen “ The adults in the room had no allergies and no one owned an epipen . They called 911, but in that time 7 year old Jack McBride had already died. 50 million people in the United States are affected by allergies today .According to asthma and allergy foundation “30% of adults and 40% of children are affected as well.” An epipen is used to treat severe allergic reactions to insect stings , bites, foods, drugs, and other allergens.

The device that was later called the EpiPen, an auto-injector with the intended purpose of delivering a precisely calibrated dosage of epinephrine without medical training, was created in 1974 and used by U.S. soldiers as a way to quickly treat poison gas symptoms on the battlefield. It was later approved for use with epinephrine, the trade name for adrenaline, for anaphylaxis. The manufacturer who gained the approval in 1987 was acquired by Pfizer and they sold the rights to the device to Merck. Mylan Pharmaceuticals purchased the marketing rights to the EpiPen in 2007 which at the time, cost about $57 each. Today EpiPens inflict pain on the patient who needs them with a price tag of more than $600 per pack of two. This is an increase of approximately 550 percent over a nine-year period. The cost of the device has become the object of intense scrutiny partially because it contains about a dollar’s worth of epinephrine which is used to treat anaphylactic shock and also because Mylan has a virtual monopoly on the device itself. Some experts claim the device known as the EpiPen costs only about four dollars to make. (Anaphylactic shock occurs when a person has a severe allergic reaction to a food or insect bite.) This is only the most recent in a series of similar events involving pharmaceutical companies. Mylan now finds itself under a very bright spotlight and is being held up as an example of “Big Pharma” taking advantage of those in need and an

Intramuscular injection is used for the delivery of certain drugs not recommended for other routes of administration, for instance intravenous, oral, or subcutaneous. The intramuscular route offers a faster rate of absorption than the subcutaneous route, and muscle tissue can often hold a larger volume of fluid without discomfort. In contrast, medication injected into muscle tissues is absorbed less rapidly and takes effect more slowly that medication that is injected intravenously. This is favorable

have soared in recent years, with the price of a single medicine often exceeding an

Consumers do not always evaluate prices objectively. Often a referenced price is a known and available price, like that of a competitor. Pricing Datril at par with Tylenol and advertising it as a new substitute with same features may have been a fraught tactic in a short-run test environment. Market penetration and share take time and is unknown. Additionally, a price war could have ensued with Tylenol due to cost differences especially in advertising.