Erm, No, it’s really not. These things are really precise, and easy to screw up. The autoinjector that was previously available as an alternative got recalled. Even on working EpiPens, there are all kinds of warnings about where precisely you have to place it, in order to not have the spring loaded needle strike your Femur, which would be a very unpleasent day (on top of, you know, being unable to breath due to anaphalactic shock).
I can’t imagine the sort of testing and tollerances required to produce such things, which are one use, mind you, so, no testing on the actual device, it’s one shot, and it MUST work.
None of that, btw, excuses the drug companies’ practices. This is EXACTLY the same autoinjector used in other applications, including for anti-nerve agents issued to military personnel in chemical combat zones (and yes, it VERY MUCH freaked me out when the exact same device, albiet loaded with different medication, was handed to me that I’d had to learn in Chem Warfare training when I was in the Air Force that I was now potentially going to need to use on my young children in an emergency). This is a known, established medical device, and, while it isn’t appropriate for home production, or even cheap, unreliable mass production, there’s no reason for it to be tied to the medication itself in terms of the prescription (any more than the specific syringe is to Insulin), nor for it suddenly quadruple or more in price years from it’s invention, rollout and being in common use (so, no “we’re paying for it’s design and development”).
