Translation: âBecause we can.â
which have to be replaced twice a year
Lol, wut?
The shelf life of adrenaline autoinjectors is normally around 1-2 years from date of manufacture.
Source: Adrenaline injectors FAQs - Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy (ASCIA)
Maybe the recommended interval is shorter in the US for whatever reason?
Exactly! If you get an EpiPen from your pharmacy with less than 12 months left until the expiry, you should refuse it.
The price reflects the value of a thing you must buy or you die? I think thatâs called inelastic demand, and itâs one of the best arguments for nationalizing an industry. Whatâs stopping them from raising the price to $6,000 or even $60,000? Cf: Martin Shkreli.
Just a user note: I was car camping in a remote spot (say, 2 hours from the nearest fire station if you went balls-out driving) when a woman I was with bit down on a yellow jacket. Between the 8 or 10 cars, we had one 5 year old, glovebox heat-shocked epipen. With no other possible course, we stuck her with it. Cleared her right up. Still ended up driving her to the hospital that night, but the stuff is a hell of a lot more stable than the directions suggest. Get a fresh one if you can, but the world is better off with that junky one in your trunk than none at all.
I initially read this as âEpithets have more than quintupledâ which made me momentarily ponder my increased use of expletives in the last month.
Regarding the generic EpiPen, the Teva Pharmaceutical Industries application was rejected due to unspecified âmajor deficienciesâ:
"Teva received a complete response letter on February 23 relating to its epinephrine ANDA in which the FDA identified certain major deficiencies. Teva is evaluating the CRL and intends to submit a response. Due to the major nature of the CRL, Teva expects that its epinephrine product will be significantly delayed and that any launch will not take place before 2017.â
No details on what âcertain major deficienciesâ means.
Reading the various articles, it seems there are design issues inherent to auto-injectors, is there something different about EpiPenÂŽ or is it just grandfathered?
Setting aside the generalized issue of pharma pricing, it would be nice to see epipens be deployed in much the same way as the automatic defibrilators you see in so many public places now. Someone who is likely to need an epipen should of course carry one, but having them in a few dozen places in a baseball park or airport really would make a great deal of sense.
So much this. Beesting allergic here, and the price of them has often made me choose to risk using an old one.
Seems that the branded version goes for ÂŁ50 in the UK if youâre paying yourself (which most people in the UK do not do).
So, assuming the UK price also âreflect[s] the multiple, important product features and the value the product provides.â, they seem to be saying that saving a life in the UK represents lower value. Which could be a bit insulting. Although the fact that the huge majority of Epipens are sold to a single customer on the UK (the National Health Service) might have an influence on price as wellâŚ
Remember almost 10 years ago now when the GOP blocked a bill that would have allowed Medicare to bargain directly with the pharmaceutical companies for lower prices? Iâll bet most GOP voters donâtâŚ
Yep. I paid $22 for mine when I was in my 20s. Theyâre $85 now.
Thatâs with insurance.
21st Century Capitalism
Steal whatever isnât nailed down, and sell it back to the people at enormous margins
That too.
Someone really needs to design a 3D printed version of one of these, and put it out there. Of course with the warning that itâs NOT to be used as an epipen. Maybe sell the parts separately on Shapeways for something else.
No goddamned fucking shit!
I just checked the one I have for my son that I got in December, and itâs good through next February.
Also, this can reduce co-pays by up to $100: https://www.epipen.com/copay-offer
These âoffersâ that pharma uses as a way of pacifying the public over price increases are bullshit.
My eye-dropper of Cipro more than doubled in price over the last decade, but I as a consumer without insurance donât feel the âpainâ because the nice guy at CVS swipes a discount card and suddenly it goes from $50 to $23. So why isnât it $23 across the board?
Your free market economie is broken, I hope you can fix it.
