9 ms·

How Parents Harnessed the Power of Social Media to Challenge EpiPen Prices

72 points by pavornyoh 10y ago

SixSigma 10y ago
Daughter of Democrat Senator and Clinton Foundation Donor raises EpiPen prices Hillary Clinton causes fuss, price comes down Amazing http://dailycaller.com/2016/08/24/company-gouging-price-of-epipens-is-a-clinton-foundation-donor-and-partner/ http://dailycaller.com/2016/08/24/company-gouging-price-of-e...
- jessaustin 10y ago
  Bresch became CEO of the company in Jan. 2012. Prior to that, she was a lobbyist for the company. She was appointed president in 2009. She has seen her salary increase from $2.4 million since 2007 to $18.9 million last year... One indication a drug company might be in maintenance mode rather than research mode: the president and CEO is a lobbyist.
  - shostack 10y ago
    Honest question...which do you think drives greater quarterly returns for shareholders? Guessing that is a big reason for the pay bump.
hoodoof 10y ago
Only in the most extreme edge cases can anything be done about the fact the the drug companies control the government which allows them overall to do just about anything they want. This is one edge case but the overall picture is that drug companies own the government and ensure legislation is in place to give them astounding amounts of government and consumer cash. It's a silent coup.
- gwright 10y ago
  I hope people think about this sort of thing when voting this fall. I'm surprised at how many people will agree that neither Hillary nor Trump are desirable candidates but will also refuse to consider Gary Johnson. This year's election seems like a perfect time to re-think unflinching support for the two main parties in the US.
  - ihsw 10y ago
    This would be great if it functioned like any other healthy democracy and coalitions formed, but unfortunately there is a concerted effort to ensure there are only two tents for people to get under.
    - witty_username 10y ago
      First past the post is a contributor to a two party system.
rdtsc 10y ago
> Some of the most prominent groups — Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE); the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA); and Allergy & Asthma Network — all have partnerships with Mylan for patient awareness campaigns and other programming. The groups aren’t required to disclose how much money they receive from the drug company, but Mylan, in its 2015 Social Responsibility report, lists all three groups as “allies.” What Mylan learned here is that they didn't have enough social media presence. I bet their had a meeting and didn't say "Yap we have been assholes about this, let's roll back prices and appologize" but rather "People feel we are assholes. Who is responible for our social media and marketing? Action item 1) need to allocate more funds and hire a better PR company".
refurb 10y ago
The funny thing is that Epipens have been really expensive for a while. Sure they took a 15% price increase over the past year. The price has been over $400 for a two pack for a while. The reason why this has come to a head is high deductible health plans. This is where you pay the first $1000-$6000 in medical costs before insurance kicks in. When all it was was a $30 copay, consumers didn't give a shit. So maybe, just maybe, pushing more medical costs to patients will actually create the pressure needed to reduce medical costs? Interesting thought.
- Spellman 10y ago
  Well, right, that would remove the Moral Hazard. And instead of insurance companies, it appears Social Media mobs are being effective at collective bargaining, which in other countries outside of the US has shown to be effective at keeping prices lower. Unfortunately it's a very selective outrage.
- asdf333 10y ago
  Yes this is exactly it. High deductible health plans are succeeding in making prices more transparent and letting the markets work as a check on healthcare costs. What Mylan is trying to do is a bit sneaky -- mollifying the high deductible complainers by giving them a coupon they can use but I believe in the long run it will backfire since it will drive more people to high deductible plans. low deductible health insurance plans dont make much sense b/c no one has an incentive to save money. by having people share in more of the costs (up to a certain level) I think you get market forces to help keep prices in check
  - wonnage 10y ago
    Market forces either didn't work or were suddenly introduced (otherwise how did the price get so high?) in this case. But people buying epipens don't have a lot of options, and unlike the price of coffee or something you're dealing with anaphylactic shock...
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
Animats 10y ago
Mylan didn't reduce the retail price. They're giving out coupons and offering deals for poor people. Insurance companies and schools are still paying full price. A comparable device, the Emerade Auto-Injector, made by Bausch and Lomb / Valeant, sells for £26.94 in the UK.[1][2] The UK, of course, has socialized medicine. The company behind Emerade is more into cutting deals with other pharmaceutical companies than bringing prices down.[3] "Valeant’s strategy is to focus on the business of core geographies and therapeutic classes, manage pipeline assets through strategic partnerships with other pharmaceutical companies and deploy cash with an appropriate mix of selective acquisitions, share buybacks and debt repurchases. Our leveraged research and development model is one key element to this business strategy and will allow us to advance development programs to drive future commercial growth, while minimizing research and development expense." [1] http://www.emerade.com/ http://www.emerade.com/ [2] https://www.psuk.co.uk/everyday-items-disposables/dental-instruments-disposables/emerade-auto-injector https://www.psuk.co.uk/everyday-items-disposables/dental-ins... [3] http://ir.valeant.com/~/media/Files/V/Valeant-IR/documents/valeant-102315.pdf http://ir.valeant.com/~/media/Files/V/Valeant-IR/documents/v...
- novalis78 10y ago
  has nothing to do with socialized medicine. You can buy anything on amazon, where fierce competition keeps prices low. Try comparing prices for medical devices or hospital prices. The healthcare "market place" is completely disfunct and government ("social") is a key monopolizer.
  - mrtron 10y ago
    Socialized medicine in Canada, and prices are also reasonable. "The Canadian price has remained constant for more than five years, thanks to regulation by the Patented Medicine Price Review Board, which has strict control over the prices pharmaceutical companies can charge for their products. In Canada, the auto-injectors can be claimed under most provincial drug benefit programs." https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2016/08/25/americans-turn-to-canada-for-cheaper-epipens.html https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2016/08/25/americans-tur...
  - 10y ago
nprz 10y ago
How do people think drugs get made? Takes a lot of effort, time, energy to get a drug made and FDA approved. Shouldn't there be some incentive to accomplish this task? Wouldn't there be an overall decrease in drug innovation if there was no money in it?
- iends 10y ago
  Have you read the story about EpiPen at all? Doesn't sound like it...
- JshWright 10y ago
  In the case of the EpiPen, the FDA approval process is _long_ over (as in, decades ago). The price has increased several times over in the past decade, despite no increase in the production cost (it's $0.50 worth of epi and a couple bucks worth of plastic).
S_Daedalus 10y ago
I wonder how long it will be before our infrastructure really starts to go south before people will wake up to what this country is becoming? I think a few bridges need to collapse before people get the idea that this is about "pump and dump" now, not investment in the future.
alva 10y ago
What a heartwarming story that completely distracts the public from the real political scandal behind EpiPen. http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-epipen-ceo-bresch-salary-20160824-story.html http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-epipen-ceo-bresch-... http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/25/business/mylan-epipen-senate-manchin.html http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/25/business/mylan-epipen-sena...
- TechTeam12 10y ago
  That video on the NYTimes page you linked is a PR disaster for her... She did an awful job at trying to defend a poor idea. On top of that, she kept quoting statistics that make it seem like the EpiPen is more needed.... More needed, but the price is staying the same! Logic is confusing there.... To go with that, her posture/hand motion is just awkward.... This is terrible.
  - karmelapple 10y ago
    She pointed out most money spent on EpiPen has been going to getting laws on the books (in 48 states!) to allow non-designated EpiPens to be available in schools and other public places. Wouldn't there be other good ways to ensure everyone has access? Eliminate the need for a prescription for instance? How does one go about doing that?
    - maxerickson 10y ago
      She doesn't say that most money has been going to the laws. She says they have expended resources on lobbying for those laws without specifying how much. The CNN video that plays at this links says their margins were 9% in 2007 when the bought the drug and 55% in 2014. http://money.cnn.com/2016/08/25/investing/epipen-cost-ceo-lowers-price-mylan/ http://money.cnn.com/2016/08/25/investing/epipen-cost-ceo-lo... Any business with 55% margin is a nice business to be in. It's also kind of scandalous that they've designed a method to reach around the insurance companies. I don't think drug companies should be allowed to offer consumers rebates that make them more likely to utilize their insurance. When they start from a high price, it's an accounting trick that doesn't cost the company anything. If a company so strongly believes they've miss-priced their product, they can simply reduce the price.
Const-me 10y ago
What I don’t understand in this story, who and how limited the competition? The product costs a few bucks to produce, retails for $600, and not covered by patents: epinephrine discovered in 1901, the autoinjector is derived from military model likely in public domain. How comes no one in the whole US wants to earn billions manufacturing a similar product and selling it for $50?
- autokad 10y ago
  they may have a patent. dont forget apple patented a shape of a button
  - kwhitefoot 10y ago
    The Apple thing is a design patent, what in the UK is called a registered design. Nothing to do with patents as normally meant.
    - autokad 10y ago
      that has much to do with nothing. point being the existence of injectors and the material in them existing before the pen has nothing to do with blocking mylan from having a patent. in which, they indeed do have.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- victorhooi 10y ago
  There was competitor (Sanofi) but they had a product recall, because it wasn't delivering the right dosage. What people don't seem to understand is - healthcare products are no laughing matter (literally). This isn't like software, where you can release early, release often, and where alpha quality is tolerated (to a degree). For whatever reason, Mylan have done the FDA testing, and perfected a product that works reliably. That is expensive. (I suspect profit factored into it somewhere). There's nothing stopping somebody for designing a different device (like Sanofi) did that does the same job - the devil is in the detail, and making sure you don't f_ck up. Because believe me - the moment you screw up, and deliver the wrong dosage to some kid in anaphylatic shock, and he/she dies...your company is history (or facing a very costly recall and/or potential lawsuit). My daughter recently had a health-scare. That moment, when I looked at her, and honestly thought she wasn't going to make it, was heart-wrenching. So I can tell you, as a parent, if my daughter was allergic to something, and the Epipen was $600, and I needed one around - sure, I'd be bummed about the money, but no, I wouldn't not pay it. And if you told me, these are the only guys so far who have made sure it's reliable, or you can get these cheap 3D printed copy that might work 85% of the time, or she might die but it's only $100 and realy, what's 15%?? What do you think I'm going to go for? If this was like, say, something else that wasn't literally life-saving, then sure, people's risk appetites would probably change dramatically.
rayiner 10y ago
The EpiPen thing is a really great example of two facts: (1) It's better to be in a business where you don't (literally) save lives, because nobody complains about how much money the Pokemon game makes. (2) People won't actually take a lot of risk to market and develop life-saving products without a financial incentive. Epinephrine is not patented. The only thing stopping a competitor from entering the market is coming up with a delivery mechanism for the drug that's as reliable as Mylan's. Apparently that has proven difficult. Sanofi used to make a competing device, until it was forced to do a mass recall because the device couldn't deliver an accurate dosage. The difficulty of getting it right is compounded by the fact that a device that delivers epinephrine to children in anaphylactic shock is just about the highest-risk product you can make from a potential liability point of view. There is no market for a "slightly less good but much cheaper" product.
- refurb 10y ago
  The other interesting thing to note is that people don't care so much about what the price is right now, they care whether or not it's gone up. If Mylan had launched the Epipen at $600 for a 2-pack, I'm not sure this would have gotten much attention. The fact the price went up 6x or more is what pisses people off. This is one of the challenges with drug pricing. If you're pricing your drug to the benefit it offers (which is what is generally done), you better do it at launch or you're screwed. This has actually happened with other drugs in the past. The drug company runs a clinical trial in one disease, gets good data and sets a price. The drug then gets approved in another indication where the value is much higher, so they try and raise the price to reflect the added value. Usually it results in outrage.
  - FireBeyond 10y ago
    "The other interesting thing to note is that people don't care so much about what the price is right now, they care whether or not it's gone up. If Mylan had launched the Epipen at $600 for a 2-pack, I'm not sure this would have gotten much attention. The fact the price went up 6x or more is what pisses people off." And that -after significant and hefty lobbying of legislatures to mandate that schools, EMS units (capable of managing, maintaining and drawing up epi themselves) and the like be required to carry them-.
1024core 10y ago
The government should just use 'eminent domain' and seize the rights to it. A few such cases would be enough to scare the rest of the industry to fall in line.
- Anon1096 10y ago
  Eminent Domain is for securing land, not seizing property. Even so, the federal government has to pay a fair market price whenever eminent domain is used, which in this case would be a very large number that taxpayers wouldn't be happy to pay, because what comes after that? Does the government start a manufacturing business? The patents are already expired, so there isn't very much to seize.
  - virtuabhi 10y ago
    Actually, its very easy. Government makes a list of life saving drugs. Then sets a maximum price on the drugs in the list. If a monopoly refuses to comply, the government calls for yearly bids from companies around the world (including generic drug makers from India). These companies fill the supply gap and in the meantime capitalism works and a local company steps in. There is no rocket science in manufacturing these drugs and pens - trivial once you have the recipe. And countries, which put people before corporations, actually do this.
    - nickff 10y ago
      Setting a maximum price does not allow the government to take the patent away. The companies could simply refuse to comply, and the government would either effectively ban the drug or be forced to buy the patent/license at a fair market price.
      - douche 10y ago
        All they have to do is write the law that says they can.
        10y ago
dboreham 10y ago
Pro tip for anyone in the northern tier of the US: drive north to Canada where the same EpiPen product is sold over the counter for around 120 $CAD. And there is no rule that you must buy two at a time. Source: my son has a severe peanut allergy and I have successfully purchased EpiPens for him at the Lethbridge AB Costco.
- lostlogin 10y ago
  Wonder what happens if you post them to someone?
  - cmdrfred 10y ago
    I may be able to answer this. Here in the US my asthma meds (two 100+ year old drugs again like epinephrine) are $75 a month each (I take 2 types so $150) with my insurance. I buy the same medicine for $20 - 25 from India (without a prescription). From what I can tell, nobody cares that I do this as I have received shipments every 3 months for the past 5 years or so. This results in me not having to take off work to go to the doctor every six months so he can say "So you still have asthma huh?" and write a script (costing me $50) as well. I just recently signed up for my company's cheapest insurance option due to this as the more expensive options simply were not providing value. Saving in total a little over $425 a month or the price of my car a year. In short: Ship 'em.
    - lostlogin 10y ago
      It looks like you can buy the pens in New Zealand and ship them to the US for about US$100, maybe a little less if you ship several at a time. Not great pricing but better than US pricing.

72 points by pavornyoh 10y ago

Daughter of Democrat Senator and Clinton Foundation Donor raises EpiPen prices Hillary Clinton causes fuss, price comes down Amazing http://dailycaller.com/2016/08/24/company-gouging-price-of-epipens-is-a-clinton-foundation-donor-and-partner/ http://dailycaller.com/2016/08/24/company-gouging-price-of-e...

jessaustin 10y ago
Bresch became CEO of the company in Jan. 2012. Prior to that, she was a lobbyist for the company. She was appointed president in 2009. She has seen her salary increase from $2.4 million since 2007 to $18.9 million last year... One indication a drug company might be in maintenance mode rather than research mode: the president and CEO is a lobbyist.
- shostack 10y ago
  Honest question...which do you think drives greater quarterly returns for shareholders? Guessing that is a big reason for the pay bump.

hoodoof 10y ago

Only in the most extreme edge cases can anything be done about the fact the the drug companies control the government which allows them overall to do just about anything they want. This is one edge case but the overall picture is that drug companies own the government and ensure legislation is in place to give them astounding amounts of government and consumer cash. It's a silent coup.

gwright 10y ago
I hope people think about this sort of thing when voting this fall. I'm surprised at how many people will agree that neither Hillary nor Trump are desirable candidates but will also refuse to consider Gary Johnson. This year's election seems like a perfect time to re-think unflinching support for the two main parties in the US.
- ihsw 10y ago
  This would be great if it functioned like any other healthy democracy and coalitions formed, but unfortunately there is a concerted effort to ensure there are only two tents for people to get under.
  - witty_username 10y ago
    First past the post is a contributor to a two party system.

rdtsc 10y ago

> Some of the most prominent groups — Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE); the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA); and Allergy & Asthma Network — all have partnerships with Mylan for patient awareness campaigns and other programming. The groups aren’t required to disclose how much money they receive from the drug company, but Mylan, in its 2015 Social Responsibility report, lists all three groups as “allies.” What Mylan learned here is that they didn't have enough social media presence. I bet their had a meeting and didn't say "Yap we have been assholes about this, let's roll back prices and appologize" but rather "People feel we are assholes. Who is responible for our social media and marketing? Action item 1) need to allocate more funds and hire a better PR company".

refurb 10y ago

The funny thing is that Epipens have been really expensive for a while. Sure they took a 15% price increase over the past year. The price has been over $400 for a two pack for a while. The reason why this has come to a head is high deductible health plans. This is where you pay the first $1000-$6000 in medical costs before insurance kicks in. When all it was was a $30 copay, consumers didn't give a shit. So maybe, just maybe, pushing more medical costs to patients will actually create the pressure needed to reduce medical costs? Interesting thought.

Spellman 10y ago
Well, right, that would remove the Moral Hazard. And instead of insurance companies, it appears Social Media mobs are being effective at collective bargaining, which in other countries outside of the US has shown to be effective at keeping prices lower. Unfortunately it's a very selective outrage.
asdf333 10y ago
Yes this is exactly it. High deductible health plans are succeeding in making prices more transparent and letting the markets work as a check on healthcare costs. What Mylan is trying to do is a bit sneaky -- mollifying the high deductible complainers by giving them a coupon they can use but I believe in the long run it will backfire since it will drive more people to high deductible plans. low deductible health insurance plans dont make much sense b/c no one has an incentive to save money. by having people share in more of the costs (up to a certain level) I think you get market forces to help keep prices in check
- wonnage 10y ago
  Market forces either didn't work or were suddenly introduced (otherwise how did the price get so high?) in this case. But people buying epipens don't have a lot of options, and unlike the price of coffee or something you're dealing with anaphylactic shock...
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]

Animats 10y ago

Mylan didn't reduce the retail price. They're giving out coupons and offering deals for poor people. Insurance companies and schools are still paying full price. A comparable device, the Emerade Auto-Injector, made by Bausch and Lomb / Valeant, sells for £26.94 in the UK.[1][2] The UK, of course, has socialized medicine. The company behind Emerade is more into cutting deals with other pharmaceutical companies than bringing prices down.[3] "Valeant’s strategy is to focus on the business of core geographies and therapeutic classes, manage pipeline assets through strategic partnerships with other pharmaceutical companies and deploy cash with an appropriate mix of selective acquisitions, share buybacks and debt repurchases. Our leveraged research and development model is one key element to this business strategy and will allow us to advance development programs to drive future commercial growth, while minimizing research and development expense." [1] http://www.emerade.com/ http://www.emerade.com/ [2] https://www.psuk.co.uk/everyday-items-disposables/dental-instruments-disposables/emerade-auto-injector https://www.psuk.co.uk/everyday-items-disposables/dental-ins... [3] http://ir.valeant.com/~/media/Files/V/Valeant-IR/documents/valeant-102315.pdf http://ir.valeant.com/~/media/Files/V/Valeant-IR/documents/v...

novalis78 10y ago
has nothing to do with socialized medicine. You can buy anything on amazon, where fierce competition keeps prices low. Try comparing prices for medical devices or hospital prices. The healthcare "market place" is completely disfunct and government ("social") is a key monopolizer.
- mrtron 10y ago
  Socialized medicine in Canada, and prices are also reasonable. "The Canadian price has remained constant for more than five years, thanks to regulation by the Patented Medicine Price Review Board, which has strict control over the prices pharmaceutical companies can charge for their products. In Canada, the auto-injectors can be claimed under most provincial drug benefit programs." https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2016/08/25/americans-turn-to-canada-for-cheaper-epipens.html https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2016/08/25/americans-tur...
- 10y ago

nprz 10y ago

How do people think drugs get made? Takes a lot of effort, time, energy to get a drug made and FDA approved. Shouldn't there be some incentive to accomplish this task? Wouldn't there be an overall decrease in drug innovation if there was no money in it?

iends 10y ago
Have you read the story about EpiPen at all? Doesn't sound like it...
JshWright 10y ago
In the case of the EpiPen, the FDA approval process is _long_ over (as in, decades ago). The price has increased several times over in the past decade, despite no increase in the production cost (it's $0.50 worth of epi and a couple bucks worth of plastic).

S_Daedalus 10y ago

I wonder how long it will be before our infrastructure really starts to go south before people will wake up to what this country is becoming? I think a few bridges need to collapse before people get the idea that this is about "pump and dump" now, not investment in the future.

alva 10y ago

What a heartwarming story that completely distracts the public from the real political scandal behind EpiPen. http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-epipen-ceo-bresch-salary-20160824-story.html http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-epipen-ceo-bresch-... http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/25/business/mylan-epipen-senate-manchin.html http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/25/business/mylan-epipen-sena...

TechTeam12 10y ago
That video on the NYTimes page you linked is a PR disaster for her... She did an awful job at trying to defend a poor idea. On top of that, she kept quoting statistics that make it seem like the EpiPen is more needed.... More needed, but the price is staying the same! Logic is confusing there.... To go with that, her posture/hand motion is just awkward.... This is terrible.
- karmelapple 10y ago
  She pointed out most money spent on EpiPen has been going to getting laws on the books (in 48 states!) to allow non-designated EpiPens to be available in schools and other public places. Wouldn't there be other good ways to ensure everyone has access? Eliminate the need for a prescription for instance? How does one go about doing that?
  - maxerickson 10y ago
    She doesn't say that most money has been going to the laws. She says they have expended resources on lobbying for those laws without specifying how much. The CNN video that plays at this links says their margins were 9% in 2007 when the bought the drug and 55% in 2014. http://money.cnn.com/2016/08/25/investing/epipen-cost-ceo-lowers-price-mylan/ http://money.cnn.com/2016/08/25/investing/epipen-cost-ceo-lo... Any business with 55% margin is a nice business to be in. It's also kind of scandalous that they've designed a method to reach around the insurance companies. I don't think drug companies should be allowed to offer consumers rebates that make them more likely to utilize their insurance. When they start from a high price, it's an accounting trick that doesn't cost the company anything. If a company so strongly believes they've miss-priced their product, they can simply reduce the price.

Const-me 10y ago

What I don’t understand in this story, who and how limited the competition? The product costs a few bucks to produce, retails for $600, and not covered by patents: epinephrine discovered in 1901, the autoinjector is derived from military model likely in public domain. How comes no one in the whole US wants to earn billions manufacturing a similar product and selling it for $50?

autokad 10y ago
they may have a patent. dont forget apple patented a shape of a button
- kwhitefoot 10y ago
  The Apple thing is a design patent, what in the UK is called a registered design. Nothing to do with patents as normally meant.
  - autokad 10y ago
    that has much to do with nothing. point being the existence of injectors and the material in them existing before the pen has nothing to do with blocking mylan from having a patent. in which, they indeed do have.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
victorhooi 10y ago
There was competitor (Sanofi) but they had a product recall, because it wasn't delivering the right dosage. What people don't seem to understand is - healthcare products are no laughing matter (literally). This isn't like software, where you can release early, release often, and where alpha quality is tolerated (to a degree). For whatever reason, Mylan have done the FDA testing, and perfected a product that works reliably. That is expensive. (I suspect profit factored into it somewhere). There's nothing stopping somebody for designing a different device (like Sanofi) did that does the same job - the devil is in the detail, and making sure you don't f_ck up. Because believe me - the moment you screw up, and deliver the wrong dosage to some kid in anaphylatic shock, and he/she dies...your company is history (or facing a very costly recall and/or potential lawsuit). My daughter recently had a health-scare. That moment, when I looked at her, and honestly thought she wasn't going to make it, was heart-wrenching. So I can tell you, as a parent, if my daughter was allergic to something, and the Epipen was $600, and I needed one around - sure, I'd be bummed about the money, but no, I wouldn't not pay it. And if you told me, these are the only guys so far who have made sure it's reliable, or you can get these cheap 3D printed copy that might work 85% of the time, or she might die but it's only $100 and realy, what's 15%?? What do you think I'm going to go for? If this was like, say, something else that wasn't literally life-saving, then sure, people's risk appetites would probably change dramatically.

rayiner 10y ago

The EpiPen thing is a really great example of two facts: (1) It's better to be in a business where you don't (literally) save lives, because nobody complains about how much money the Pokemon game makes. (2) People won't actually take a lot of risk to market and develop life-saving products without a financial incentive. Epinephrine is not patented. The only thing stopping a competitor from entering the market is coming up with a delivery mechanism for the drug that's as reliable as Mylan's. Apparently that has proven difficult. Sanofi used to make a competing device, until it was forced to do a mass recall because the device couldn't deliver an accurate dosage. The difficulty of getting it right is compounded by the fact that a device that delivers epinephrine to children in anaphylactic shock is just about the highest-risk product you can make from a potential liability point of view. There is no market for a "slightly less good but much cheaper" product.

refurb 10y ago
The other interesting thing to note is that people don't care so much about what the price is right now, they care whether or not it's gone up. If Mylan had launched the Epipen at $600 for a 2-pack, I'm not sure this would have gotten much attention. The fact the price went up 6x or more is what pisses people off. This is one of the challenges with drug pricing. If you're pricing your drug to the benefit it offers (which is what is generally done), you better do it at launch or you're screwed. This has actually happened with other drugs in the past. The drug company runs a clinical trial in one disease, gets good data and sets a price. The drug then gets approved in another indication where the value is much higher, so they try and raise the price to reflect the added value. Usually it results in outrage.
- FireBeyond 10y ago
  "The other interesting thing to note is that people don't care so much about what the price is right now, they care whether or not it's gone up. If Mylan had launched the Epipen at $600 for a 2-pack, I'm not sure this would have gotten much attention. The fact the price went up 6x or more is what pisses people off." And that -after significant and hefty lobbying of legislatures to mandate that schools, EMS units (capable of managing, maintaining and drawing up epi themselves) and the like be required to carry them-.

1024core 10y ago

The government should just use 'eminent domain' and seize the rights to it. A few such cases would be enough to scare the rest of the industry to fall in line.

Anon1096 10y ago
Eminent Domain is for securing land, not seizing property. Even so, the federal government has to pay a fair market price whenever eminent domain is used, which in this case would be a very large number that taxpayers wouldn't be happy to pay, because what comes after that? Does the government start a manufacturing business? The patents are already expired, so there isn't very much to seize.
- virtuabhi 10y ago
  Actually, its very easy. Government makes a list of life saving drugs. Then sets a maximum price on the drugs in the list. If a monopoly refuses to comply, the government calls for yearly bids from companies around the world (including generic drug makers from India). These companies fill the supply gap and in the meantime capitalism works and a local company steps in. There is no rocket science in manufacturing these drugs and pens - trivial once you have the recipe. And countries, which put people before corporations, actually do this.
  - nickff 10y ago
    Setting a maximum price does not allow the government to take the patent away. The companies could simply refuse to comply, and the government would either effectively ban the drug or be forced to buy the patent/license at a fair market price.
    - douche 10y ago
      All they have to do is write the law that says they can.
      - 10y ago

dboreham 10y ago

Pro tip for anyone in the northern tier of the US: drive north to Canada where the same EpiPen product is sold over the counter for around 120 $CAD. And there is no rule that you must buy two at a time. Source: my son has a severe peanut allergy and I have successfully purchased EpiPens for him at the Lethbridge AB Costco.

lostlogin 10y ago
Wonder what happens if you post them to someone?
- cmdrfred 10y ago
  I may be able to answer this. Here in the US my asthma meds (two 100+ year old drugs again like epinephrine) are $75 a month each (I take 2 types so $150) with my insurance. I buy the same medicine for $20 - 25 from India (without a prescription). From what I can tell, nobody cares that I do this as I have received shipments every 3 months for the past 5 years or so. This results in me not having to take off work to go to the doctor every six months so he can say "So you still have asthma huh?" and write a script (costing me $50) as well. I just recently signed up for my company's cheapest insurance option due to this as the more expensive options simply were not providing value. Saving in total a little over $425 a month or the price of my car a year. In short: Ship 'em.
  - lostlogin 10y ago
    It looks like you can buy the pens in New Zealand and ship them to the US for about US$100, maybe a little less if you ship several at a time. Not great pricing but better than US pricing.