EpiPen alternative to hit market at more than seven times the price

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

EpiPen alternative to hit market at more than seven times the price

Jessica Glenza in New York
Monday 13 February 2017 21.00 GMT

Pharmaceutical company Kaléo – already under fire for raising the price of an overdose antidote – now plans to put an alternative to the EpiPen on the market for more than seven times the cost of the leading $608 drug.

Kaléo’s epinephrine injector, used to stop severe allergic reactions, will go on sale for $4,500 for a pack of two beginning on 14 February. The auto-injector’s innovative audio instructions walk caregivers through administering less than $5 worth of epinephrine.

Remarkably, because of a system of coupons and discounts, Kaléo’s epinephrine injector Auvi-Q may have the lowest out-of-pocket costs for patients, a strategy some critics say may help some customers, but leads insurance companies to redistribute the cost of the drug through insurance fees to remain profitable.

“It’s a brilliant auto-injector – is it fair to say it’s worth $4,000 itself? That’s $3,000 more than your iPhone, and you can only use it once,” said Dr Joseph Ross, an associate professor of medicine at Yale University who has written about drug pricing for the New England Journal of Medicine. “It’s tricky to know what’s the right price, what’s a fair price.”

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/feb/13/kaleo-epipen-maker-alternative-drug-pharmaceutical

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. Like any product, you charge as much as you can for the largest

buying base.

People will die for sure under our system of capitalism.

[Angry Dragon]

3. many have already died ........... and not just because of drugs

[unblock]

6. people forget that all those wonderful results capitalism give, only happen under

certain circumstances.

in the long run, with full information, free consent, no externalities, no one with market power, vigorous competition, etc.


if you need a product to survive and there's no real competition, or the competition effectively colludes to keep prices high, then the market will work to extract as much wealth as possible from those in need.

those excess profits are the incentive for competition, which may bring down prices *in the long run*. in the meanwhile, people die and the sellers make obscene profits by saying no to people in desperate need and "how much ya got" to those left who can afford to be gouged.

[unblock]

2. we've used auvi-q, it's pretty cool. but these prices are insane!

[Docreed2003]

4. Got Hepatitis C, we have a cure for the low low price of 50k

And you might need another 50k for repeat treatments!

Have a child with severe allergic reactions?? We have an amazing product for only 4.5k! You wouldn't want your kid to die would you???

Welcome to capitalism run amuck....unfuckinbelievable

[Warpy]

5. Stick 'em up! Your money or your life, sucka!

Insane drug pricing is one way they're going to weed out the "weak" among us.

[mike_c]

7. obscene greed....

[mucifer]

8. I thought CVS came out with one for $109 for a two pack

https://www.cvs.com/content/epipen-alternative

I don't understand this. Can someone explain?

[Warpy]

9. The Adrenaclick/Adrenaject works a little differently than the Epipen

so people will need to read the instructions carefully and possibly review them daily for a while to make sure they know what to do in a panic situation when they can't breathe.

Other than that, they're equivalent with the same drug in the same dose.