Written by Alexa Erickson
In the US alone, about 15 million people suffer from food allergies, and allergic reactions result in about 200,000 emergency visits each year. When an allergic reaction occurs, people can inject themselves with the EpiPen—a life-saving device for people with severe allergies or asthma. But unfortunately, it comes at a hefty price in the US: $600. This wasn’t always the case, however.
Mylan, the company who makes the EpiPen, has raised the device’s price 300 percent in seven years from 2009 to 2016. But why? Because they can.
Mylan CEO Heather Bresch has repeatedly struggled to back up the company’s increase cost for the EpiPen. She believes the problem has nothing to do with Mylan or the pharmaceutical industry, and everything to do with the US health-care system that requires consumers to pay more insurance premiers as well as out-of-pocket expenses for prescription medications.
People remain furious, nonetheless. “This is greed on steroids,” Ralph Nader, a well-known consumer advocate said.
The EpiPen issue is yet another representation of what’s wrong with drug manufacturing, and our health care system altogether.
“Our health care system is based on the premise that health care is a commodity like VCRs or computers and that it should be distributed according to the ability to pay in the same way that consumer goods are. That’s not what health care should be. Health care is a need; it’s not a commodity, and it should be distributed according to need. If you’re very sick, you should have a lot of it. If you’re not sick, you shouldn’t have a lot of it. But this should be seen as a personal, individual need, not as a commodity to be distributed like other marketplace commodities. That is a fundamental mistake in the way this country, and only this country, looks at health care. And that market ideology is what has made the health care system so dreadful, so bad at what it does.” – Marcia Angell, MD
And while the debate ensues, a collective of doctors is giving people a more affordable alternative.
Called Four Thieves Vinegar, the doctors are offering a free online guide to show people how to make their own “EpiPencil,” for the low price of $30, which is 5 percent of the price Myland charges.
Like the EpiPen, the DIY EpiPencil uses a spring-loaded needle to inject the drug epinephrine — a synthetic form of adrenaline — in patients suffering from respiratory emergencies to open the airways and restore breath.
In 2007, an EpiPen could be purchased for $100. The ongoing spike, currently at $600, has caused public outrage. Mylan responded by offering people a generic version of the medical device for $300 in August. This only further proved people’s skepticism over the manufacturer’s greed.
Originally posted @ Collective Evolution
