Mylan points out, though, that the EpiPen is designed specifically to administer epinephrine quickly and properly in an emergency situation and quotes the Food and Drug Administration in saying that the “the device that delivers the medication is just as critical.” Nevertheless, critics say that doesn’t justify the skyrocketing of the price paid for a device that has remained unchanged for years. “There’s value to the auto-injector, but it is not built in a way that’s refillable or reusable,” said Stephen Schondelmeyer, a professor at the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy, who heads its department of pharmaceutical care and health systems.
London charges her patients $50 for an initial device, and $2.50 for a refill. EpiPen auto-injectors aren’t reusable, and epinephrine expires after 18 months, so people with serious allergies must get a fresh device each year. In addition to costing less, her process tackles a key issue. London’s might represent a path to more security. Still, for customers with little money to spare, innovations like Dr. London’s can alleviate the pricing issue, but replicating this approach on a large scale could pose problems, since someone with medical expertise must do the refilling to avoid contaminating the device, meet quality standards for the device itself, and make the user aware of any safety issues that using the injector might pose. (Courtesy of Cathleen London)įixes like Dr. She ended up devising a workaround for her patients who needed one.Ĭathleen London said she was motivated to build her own auto-injector when she saw headlines about EpiPen’s price hike. There’s got to be another auto-injector,” she said. Cathleen London, a family doctor in Milbridge, Maine, to news that the pharmaceutical company Mylan had driven up the prices of its signature EpiPen, a branded auto-injecting device containing a preset dose of epinephrine, a lifesaving drug, to be used by people at risk of experiencing anaphylactic shock triggered by an allergy. One striking example is the response of Dr. Their efforts to bring down costs for their patients highlight the arbitrary and often needlessly exorbitant prices of drugs in the U.S., they say. The concern over soaring prescription drug prices continues to dominate headlines, attracting scrutiny from Capitol Hill and President Donald Trump, who said during a January press conference that the industry was “getting away with murder.”īut some doctors - frustrated by what they see as unreasonable price tags and political stagnation - are coming up with do-it-yourself solutions.
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