Epipen coupons seem easy to come byā¦
That being said, there are plenty of other good benefits about this new injectorā¦ smaller is definitely better. Carrying these around for my daughter is not fun.
Yes, the stuff degrades, but I was out camping (90+ min from any possible help) when one of the folks bit down on a yellow jacket. Amazingly, someone had a 5 year old epipen that had been left in a glovebox and saved her life with it. Probably degraded, but not ineffective.
Does anyone know how the āEpiPenā brand ones continue to hold a 90% share?
My understanding was that adrenaline was all kinds of off-patent, and that autoinjectors(while not as widely used and developed because they are the injection system of last resort) are still a fairly mature technology. Is there a barrier to entry that I donāt know about, or just a lack of desire among other potential producers to enter a market that would be commodified swiftly if they touched it?
Drugs have a huge built-in safety margin with expiration dates. The dates they give are the dates of guaranteed effectiveness, not the date at which the drug isnāt good any more. Most pills can go years out of date and be fine. I donāt know about epi-pens, but your experience would seem to support it for them, too.
And you can play physics with them. The Arrhenius law says chemical reactions slow down with lower temperatures (twice for each 10K, rule of thumb). A med stored in an opaque, airtight container with some dessicant, at low temperature (fridge or even freezer) should survive with intact effectivity for ages. (Assuming thereās nothing to freeze and e.g. break an emulsion or cause other kind of irreversible changes. Solid state stuff should be okay down to liquid helium.)
That saidā¦ speculation: could an autoinjector be refilled with a betablocker, to suppress āthe shakesā in a high-stress timing-sensitive emergency situation?
I would be interested in a more stable auto injector. I have never ever had the need for one, but Iām allergic to shellfish and going out to eat at certain restaurants makes me nervous about cross contamination. I have eaten at places where I had really mild reactions, but could tell my food was prepped in the same areas with shellfish
This sounds like a good deal to me. Iāve been told I should be carrying/keeping these things around. But I lack insurance, they expire quickly, and itās pretty rare to get stung by 3 or more bees in one go. Apparently thatās the threshold for me dying instead of being in incredible pain.
Iāve been complaining about the size of the epipen for years. It just keeps getting bigger and more awkward to carry. I used to carry a tubex syringe with about half the volume and with a more convenient form factor.
My immunologist had a beta-model of this thing. She told me theyāre recording in different languages for different countries as well. Iām VERY excited to see these new injectors hit the market; that recording will save lives.
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