Monopolies Gonna Monopoly.





I can almost guarantee there is a government regulation that is the primary cause of this situation.



ETA:  Read the article, and sure enough, I was right.



 

The answer is depends.
Epinephrine isn't particularly stable and exposure to high heat or UV light can very quickly degrade it to the point that it is completely ineffective.
The manufactures expiration date is based on stability studies within their prescribed storage conditions with a bit of a buffer.
Best course of action is to have an in date pen or ampule and store it appropriately and rotate it out of service when expired.

And whoever is recommending pre-drawing up the syringes STOP!.  Sterility concerns aside drawing epi up in a standard plastipak syringe will degrade to useless in a matter of days.

She gave you lies, I gave you the facts. Choosing not to believe it is your problem.

Hmmm. She says 55% of the drug is because of other people to the public after public outcry. But a call to investors this very month says they (Mylan) charge wholesalers just under $600 for it.  


Just to be sure, I checked with our pharmacy distributor (I work for a company that buys from them). What Mylan charges them for EpiPen supports my claim.


Mylan is the sole driver for the costs.

It depends on how it was stored, most of the time it's still good but there's a chance that it will be ineffective or dangerous.

Corbett Report's James Corbett, who also does The International Forecaster, says the gouging is tied to the Klinton  Foundaiton.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApW8sNbOru8.  Not to blame the Klinton Foundation but the company that makes it (and gouges) is a donor and partner with the Klinton Foundation.

What level of price or profit constitutes "gouging?"

Did I just stumble into the DU?

This is capitalism. Deal with it.

They can charge what they like. Another company is free to create an alternative that costs less and corners the market.

You know how I know you didn't read the thread or any links...

 

Know how I know you didn't read, either?

It's NOT capitalism when you pay off the gov to kneecap your competition so you have a monopoly on a drug you didn't spend any money creating and a device developed by the gov.

That's an option but 99.99% of the 1ml syringes available on the market are going to be 1ml slip tip or luer plastic TB syringes. Very few glass small volume syringes out there and most of those are for specialty use. Good luck for Joe Sixpack trying to put together the bootleg epi kit at his local pharmacy.
Knowledge of drug delivery/storage isn't exactly in Joe sixpack's wheelhouse.

Sounds exactly like capitalism to me.  It's using the tools available to it to extract money from people.

Sure.  

The regulatory environment is part of doing business. They got their device approved and is the best at what it does. Manufacturer raises prices. That's capitalism.

But, here's the important part, and it's not a load of hearsay,  capitalism kicks in again and it's now more profitable for another company to spend money on r&d to create a competitor.

You guys are being short sighted. This is how capitalism works.

Another company will create a competitor now that there's money to be made, and if they have to bribe or lobby their way to approval that will happen too.

Does my teen have to see a dr there or can I just take a prescription? I'm asking in all seriousness b/c I have no idea how Canada's medical/pharmacy system works.

I found this earlier today, when I was wondering how 'stale' my '03 and '05 expiry dates really were:

"An April 2015 study in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology looked at 35 expired EpiPens from patients in Florida and found that injectors that were up to two years past their expiration date could potentially retain 90 percent or more of the initial dose listed on labeling. However, given the potential that anaphylaxis could be life-threatening, you should not rely on expired auto injectors for treatment. Even if you think the expired pen has worked, it’s still important to seek emergency medical care as soon as you inject, just as you should any time you use an epinephrine injector."

http://www.consumerreports.org/drugs/how-to-get-cheaper-epipen-alternative/

Chris

HELL YES IT WOULD. The biased media is disgusting.

Kind of why I was wondering if there were 1mg/ml vials.  Drawing out of an ampule could be very difficult for someone who isn't practiced.  Drawing from a vial would be considerably easier with less chance someone who doesn't draw up meds from ampules regularly doesn't slice up their fingers.

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AKA the cost of readiness.

Holy shit the clowns still falling over themselves to defend this as "capitalism" all because in their little minds, ANY criticism of ANY business for ANY reason is tantamount to being a liberal socialist communist.

They try to sound so smart with their tired bullshit rhetoric of "their business their rules" or "start your own company" without reading any of the articles or facts pertaining to this particular case, and shout down anyone who is critical of what going on. The funniest part? They're defending a piece of fucking shit democrat clinton donor engaging in blatant cronyism but have the unmitigated gall to chastise those who are calling this what it is.

I said earlier I love threads like this because they're awesome for a laugh, and I sure have not been disappointed.

They are basically defending corruption. As my free market economics professor friend of mine would say -- "They don't know economics"..

Well at least he chose his user name wisely.

And how many Senators bought stock and got in on the ground floor just before the price increase?      


Cocksuckers the whole bunch of 'em.  

This is how they all become rich while in office.

http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/5099028384001/paid-spokeswoman-for-mylan-quits-calls-for-ceo-to-resign/?#sp=show-clips

Go to the link and watch this video. Each Epi-Pen costs a $1 to make according to the former Mylan Spokesman.

So what?

What does it cost to make an iPhone?

Does the government require Iphones in schools, is the government trying to require an Iphone be provided to the passengers on a plane at the Airlines expense, is Iphone being assisted by the government forcing competitor products off the market and preventing more from coming to the market? Will you die without access to an Iphone? Is the CEO of Apple the son of a powerful US Senator who as governor saw his son get a college degree he was unqualified to receive?

Corruption and Cronyism is among the reason this is happening.

Not saying you're wrong, but getting $300 for a pen is going to open the market up to many manufacturers, thereby increasing competition, which will eventually stabilize the price at a lower point.



 

I don't think you quite understand how a monopoly works, For one thing, Mylan holds a patent on it. Mylan therefore exploits this. Also, the FDA is also responsible for letting Mylan keep their monopoly, they just denied an Israeli company from FDA approval with a generic version of the epipen.

Do you know for a fact the company still holds a patent on the original, government ordered design, rather than the newer types they make now?



 

I'm sure the 70's design is probably different than the one they have on the market now. If you were to make any new updates to a product wouldn't you also file a patent to protect the new version?

To your question, sure.  But if the patent expired (or never existed since it was government work) for the original design, what is stopping another company from making the original design again?



And while we are at it, do you know that the Israeli company was blocked for cronyism reasons rather than manufacturing deficiencies like the FDA said?



 

Autoinjector design has changed over the years, the current designs cover the needle as it is withdrawn from the patient vs the prior ones leaving it exposed. Thus how the current design is patent protected.

Then you have the testing to show the dose is consistent, which is not cheap or easy.

Kharn

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Somehow I don't buy the fact that only this one company has the skills to put a 100 year old drug in an injector, FDA is protecting us from these companies and people should be grateful to pay $600 for something that costs a dollar or two to produce with no real development cost.

Patents don't really play a role here at all. What we have is the FDA protecting the brand owned by aDemocrat Senators daughter.

Teva Pharmaceuticals had their design rejected outright for deficiencies:

Sanofi was forced to recall its Auvi-Q autoinjectors because of 26 unconfirmed reports of the injector dispensing inaccurate dosages. There were 2.8 million Auvi-Q injectors in the wild, but the recall came down from the FDA over unconfirmed reports.

From the rep at Sanofi:

Oddly enough, it seems the FDA is clearing out the competition just in time for the passage of bills requiring or encouraging schools to stock epinephrine auto-injectors as well as a bill to require airlines to keep a number of autoinjectors on board each of their aircraft. That bill can be found in the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation- Joe Manchin is a member.

Finally, real world tests show that correct dosage administration and proper use by consumers of Epi Pens as they're designed runs around 45%. The FDA rejected the Auvi-Q for a supposed, unconfirmed failure or mis-dosage rate of a fraction of a percent: 0.0001% of their units "failed."

Something stinks IMHO.

So you don't know...but you feel that there's collusion.  How progressive of you.

You could buy a 3D printer for $600 and make this thing at home then buy new vials when they expire.  

The government should tax them.  That'll fix it.

You should call CNN or MSNBC with your new facts...seems you've scooped all of the news and financial channels with your in depth investigative reporting.

Go for it!!!

Set things right, SJW!!!

Suspect?  Sure.

Investigate?  Absolutely

Get out the pitchforks and start demanding the government fix the pricing?  No.

Agreed. Especially the investigate.

While not to defend Mylan, all those saying that schools are being required to pay for the epipens are not entirely true.  Mylan has a program called EpiPen For Schools (look it up if you don't believe me) where schools can get pens for free. They are actively lobbying to get the pens in the schools are doing so on the state level, but to date they have given away over 500k pens free to schools who participate in the program.  As for the airlines, I'm sure the private companies would be required to pay for them.


I know this because I used to work for Mylan.  The price of the EpiPen is honestly one of the main reasons I no longer work there.  It is their business and well within their rights to charge however much they want for it, but I was personally disturbed by this and want to work somewhere else.  While Mylan is somewhat truthful that they can't control the costs from the distributor level to the individual pharmacy, they are also having a major impact on the drug cost.  Anyone who thinks they margins for the wholesaler and the end seller (pharmacy) have not also risen during this time is wrong.  


I heard a sales manager tell a customer once that the price of epipens has only risen by $17 over 5 years from what Mylan sells to the distributor.  I personally don't believe that, but I do know that Mylan is spending money like a drunken sailor to get rebates and favorable second tier coverage for patients with insurance.  I think I read that for patient's not on a high deductible plan, EpiPen has like a 95% second tier coverage rate (lowest branded copay and the next level above generics).  The reason this pricing has come to light is the popularity of the high deductible plans from the insurance companies.  Those plans offer monthly premium cost savings to the patient, but they are no longer shielded from the true cost of the medications being prescribed.  Mylan was constantly getting feedback from doctors and pharmacies to do a better job on helping the cash pay (high deductible patient).  The one good thing about the high deductible plans is the realization by many of just how expensive their healthcare has become and are hopefully becoming wiser in their decisions for medical care.  A relatively new asthma medication costs approx $390 per month for cash pay patients yet if you have insurance with traditional copays you won't see this cost.  It is the cash pay patient that now realizes this cost and will then start to seek other options for generic treatments that are similar in clinical outcomes.  Take that almost $400 a month for a year ($4800) in contrast to $700 yearly cost of the epipen ($60 a month averaged out).  Oh, and yes their is a generic available called adrenaclick (it uses at slightly different delivery mechanism, so legally pharmacies can't directly switch if the script says EpiPen) but they can get them for approx $150 for a 2 pack


Once again, I am not truly defending Mylan as I stated, this very reason weighed heavy on my decision to leave.

The gov picks it's favorites. Fda is blocking competitors, I doubt it's because they have serious deficiencies.

Bait and switch. Our township board used to vote on their own salaries. They'd have friends shill a high raise so they could say that was too much. So the shills would say half the raise would be good.
The board would "reluctantly" say ok and vote themselves the money they'd decided they wanted but it would look good in the local paper to residents who weren't real bright.

Might want to check on that expiration thing. Mine are good for one year unless the medication is cloudy. Pull the auto injector out of the case and you'll see a little window to check the color. You may not be safe with the ones you have.

Assumes FDA does not continue the cock blocking of new epinephrine injectors coming to market.

Manufacturer offering a discount card (up to 50% off) based on publicity, apparently.

click

No, it's not capitalism.  It's fascism.  Not postulating Godwin's law here.  Real fascism.  Socialism with semi-centralized planning via state and business partnership. Those with polticial power working the authority of the state to distribute economic power to a politically aligned cadre of owners.  It utterly corrupts the economic system.  It's probably the most insidious form of tyranny because it's truly boiling the frog by slowly heating the pot.

The reason for the price hike here is not that the company wanted to turn the screw to all their customers to see what the market could bear - It was that the company was given a near government monopoly through carefully crafted legislation.  The crux is that when you sell to the fed they get most favored pricing - meaning that you cannot sell to someone else for a lower price.  If the majority of your sales were on the commercial side, you would have to stay competitive, BUT when you are granted a government contract that guarantees more sales to government than you will get in private side sales, the pricing is not based on a supply/demand curve but on whatever "profit" cover your political backers can swing for you.  In this case they had a perfect storm of backing.  That is not capitalism.  It is not free or even semi-free market economics.  It is fascism.