In case you have been hiding under a rock or busy traveling to the moon, you may not have heard about the battle currently waging between EpiPen carriers and the company who manufacturers them, Mylan.
So here’s a little recap…. Right in time for back to school madness, the pharmaceutical company and manufacturer of EpiPen, Mylan, shocked individuals and parents of kids with food allergies everywhere. They announced yet ANOTHER EpiPen price hike, bringing the grand total on these essential auto injectors to over $600–that’s a 400% price increase in just the last few years! The price hike created an outrage amongst EpiPen carriers and even backlash from presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and EpiPen’s newly appointed spokeswoman, Sarah Jessica Parker. Now, I must say I may have rolled my eyes just a little bit when I first learned that SJP was the new EpiPen spokesperson. Not that I don’t like SJP, but I couldn’t help but wonder what it must have cost Mylan to engage with such an A-list celebrity. Usually A-listers like that get hired by the Lancomes of the world, but drug companies… not so much. Then again, I guess only someone as big as SJP could dump them so fast once the backlash began… because that is exactly what happened.
In response to the outcry, Mylan quickly announced new rebates would be made available to customers.
But, are these rebates enough? The CEO of Mylan claims the rebates will slash the price consumers pay by around 50%, but Clinton, for one, believes consumers will end up paying more through higher insurance premiums.
Mylan also announced plans to make inclusion into the patient assistance program for those who are underinsured or uninsured easier, but what about the rest of us? Will we be stuck with a $600 tab?
The cost of EpiPens in Europe has been held steady at around $100 or $150, where countries’ governments place a limit on how much drug manufacturers are allowed to charge. But, Mylan acknowledged American customers are paying more to make up for the low costs overseas, adding even more fuel to the fire.
Now, a fews week later, the finger pointing is still ongoing. Mylan CEO, Heather Bresch, is placing the blame on insurance companies, stating higher deductibles have increased what consumers have to pay for medications such as EpiPens. Bresch even went as far as to say there is a healthcare crisis in America similar to the mortgage crisis of 2008. Politicians, on the other hand, have pointed the finger back at Bresch, claiming this is just another example of corporate greed in the pharmaceutical industry. As a matter of fact, the CEO of Mylan was called in last week to testify in in front of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee about the drug’s price. More on that here>>
Interestingly enough, the CEO of Allergy & Asthma Network, Tonya Winders, released a statement that Mylan wasn’t the only one to blame and that we need to encourage insurers to add epinephrine to the preventive drug lists so that EpiPens would be available to all patients and families without out-of-pocket expense, regardless of the type of health insurance plan they use.
But, regardless of who’s to blame, something needs to be done. There’s no doubt in our minds that paying $600 for a potentially life-saving medication is outrageous—especially when you consider it has an expiration date and will need to be thrown out and replaced about every 12-18 months and hopefully never used!
My guess and my hope is that the very worst of it all is behind us. The timing of the EpiPen price hike was no accident. With competitors on the horizon but not quite available just yet- it was the perfect time to “strike while the iron was hot” so to speak. With a generic auto-injector coming into the marketplace by Teva Pharmaceuticals sometime in 2017, and Mylan’s response to the generic by releasing it’s own generic (head-spin, I know), hopefully costs should come down significantly. Incidentally, a generic Epipen most likely means the same exact device and medicine minus the name EpiPen and the pricey marketing programs like hiring high profile spokespersons (cough, SJP).
Hey, we can do without the celebrities! Just give us the meds we need at a price that we can afford!
What do you think of the Epi-Pen controversy? Share your thoughts with us.
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Keep those valuable meds safe and sound with AllerMates medicine cases.
Xo,
Iris
Iris Shamus is a mother to three awesome kids & the founder/CEO of AllerMates. AllerMates was born as a result of her food allergic and asthmatic son, Ben. Iris and/or AllerMates have been featured in many places including Fox News, the Doctors, Veria Living, MSNBC, The Today Show & the Huffington Post with helpful advice on keeping kids safe. Based in New York, Iris & her team design & ship their products, create informative content & obsess every day about safeguarding kids.
Iris Shamus is a mother to three awesome kids & the founder/CEO of AllerMates. AllerMates was born as a result of her food allergic and asthmatic son, Ben. Iris and/or AllerMates have been featured in many places including Fox News, the Doctors, Veria Living, MSNBC, The Today Show & the Huffington Post with helpful advice on keeping kids safe. Based in New York, Iris & her team design & ship their products, create informative content & obsess every day about safeguarding kids.