UPDATE: Mylan announced Aug. 25 that it will offer discounts on the EpiPen for patients who face high out-of-pocket costs.
By Brenda Flanagan
Correspondent
Seventeen-year-old Jorge Mascaro’s got multiple food allergies that are so severe exposure could kill him, his doctors say. So he always carries a special, pre-loaded syringe called an EpiPen. Jabbed into the thigh, EpiPens deliver life-saving epinephrine. Recently, some families claim it’s the EpiPen’s pricetag that’s killing them.
“The EpiPen costs have just gone up enormously and so we’re having a lot of patients calling the office, coming in, very frustrated, very unhappy because their kids have severe food allergies and they really have no options. They can’t afford them,” said Reena Mehta of Allergy & Asthma Specialists.
When a competitor pulled its auto-injector off the shelves last year it handed the market to Mylan, which makes the EpiPen. Mylan charged a reported $100 a unit for the EpiPen back in 2008. But the price more than doubled by 2010 and this year can top $600 per Epien sold in two-packs.
“It just doesn’t seem right,” said Dr. Leonard Silverstein. “You see it in products where they tend to have no opposition. When there’s a monopoly.”
“It’s being unfair to those who, you don’t buy one of these if you don’t need it. You don’t carry them. You don’t worry about carrying your EpiPen with you all the time if you don’t have to have one. So they’re taking advantage of people’s needs,” Sharon Mascaro said.
Mascaro’s got cadillac insurance coverage and can afford Jorge’s three EpiPen twin-packs — at $1,600. Patients must buy new ones every year because epinephrine loses its potency. Her friends are less fortunate.
“They have to have them with their kids — same as I do — and they don’t have the plans, so they’re going to have to pay huge amounts of money,” Mascaro said.
“Of course everybody in a free market system is entitled to make a profit, but not to the point of 600 times its cost. That seems a little excessive to me,” said Lisa Giuriceo, coordinator for Food Allergy and Asthma Support Group of North Jersey.
Mylan says it’s provided 700,000 free EpiPens for 65,000 schools since 2015 and offers reusable coupons for $100 off a two-pack to help with insurance co-pays. Regardless, Mylan admits larger co-pays impose financial “… challenges for consumers, and they are bearing more of the cost. This change to the industry is not an easy challenge to address, but we recognize the need and are committed to working with customers and payors to find solutions to meet the needs of the patients and families we serve.”
“If there were competitors out there we believe it’s very likely the price would come down. That would solve part of the problem. But again I think the insurance issue is a part of the problem that also needs to be addressed,” said Cary Sennett ,CEO of Allergy and Asthma Foundation of America.
Advocacy groups have reached out to lawmakers in Washington and Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut has suggested an investigation into why such a lifesaver should suddenly costs so much more money.