I just paid for a pair of EpiPens; the generic version was $337 a pair (last I checked, the non-generic version was over $600). I have pretty good health insurance, so I didn't pay that much myself, but my employer paid the rest.
As a baseline, I had the pharmacist look up the equivalent medication for use with a syringe; a ten dose bottle was $5.99. I know, not the same thing. But this confirmed what I'd suspected for years.
I have to assume that the EpiPen delivery mechanism, which is really what we're paying for, is well debugged and optimized and essentially just a matter of ordering parts and assembling them; it would be mind boggling to have a COGs of more than a few dollars, or any significant conversion costs. The cost of the actual medication that the pens contain is apparently about sixty cents on top of that. Mylan is printing money.
Icing on the cake: The pens expire after a year. But you typically can't get pens that last that long, the ones I got already have a few months on them and will have to be replaced before the next school year ends or my son won't be able to attend class (the school is not allowed to administer "expired" medication).
This is an utter and corrupt racket. I'm writing my congressional representatives and senators. Again.
Well, they're converting IP to money. The fact that their device is delivering adrenaline is almost irrelevant. Except for the dose sensitivity and life/death context, which make it a perfect setup. Price gouging is also an issue for asthma inhalers, for the same reason.
Between the FDA and patent lawsuits, good luck doing this in the US. Several major drug companies have already failed miserably and Adrenaclick isn't anywhere near the huge success you apparently think it would be.
So are you saying it is not possible to provide an epipen equivalent at lesser price than mylan? Then what wrong are they doing again? It is literally not possible to sell the product at a lower price.
Well, Adrenaclick does exist and is cheaper, but I'll assume you meant "very hard" rather than "not possible".
It's hard because the US pharmaceuticals market is broken, something that Mylan is paying money to encourage now that they're on top. Have you read the post I linked to?
I just paid for a pair of EpiPens; the generic version was $337 a pair (last I checked, the non-generic version was over $600). I have pretty good health insurance, so I didn't pay that much myself, but my employer paid the rest.
As a baseline, I had the pharmacist look up the equivalent medication for use with a syringe; a ten dose bottle was $5.99. I know, not the same thing. But this confirmed what I'd suspected for years.
I have to assume that the EpiPen delivery mechanism, which is really what we're paying for, is well debugged and optimized and essentially just a matter of ordering parts and assembling them; it would be mind boggling to have a COGs of more than a few dollars, or any significant conversion costs. The cost of the actual medication that the pens contain is apparently about sixty cents on top of that. Mylan is printing money.
Icing on the cake: The pens expire after a year. But you typically can't get pens that last that long, the ones I got already have a few months on them and will have to be replaced before the next school year ends or my son won't be able to attend class (the school is not allowed to administer "expired" medication).
This is an utter and corrupt racket. I'm writing my congressional representatives and senators. Again.