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Thread: The Lack of EpiPen Competitors is the FDA's Fault

  1. #1

    The Lack of EpiPen Competitors is the FDA's Fault

    The Lack of EpiPen Competitors is the FDA's Fault





    4 Comments
    Tags Big GovernmentHealth
    1 hour agoJonathan Newman
    There’s a new bout of outrage over an expensive medicine or medical treatment. While the good in question changes each time, the blame always seems to fall on greedy corporations who just aren’t regulated enough. Free markets and capitalism are the scapegoat, even when nothing remotely resembling unhampered markets in health care is in place in the United States.
    This time, it’s the EpiPen, a device that easily and safely injects epinephrine to quickly open up airways for people undergoing severe anaphylaxis because of an extreme allergy. It has saved the lives of countless people who are allergic to bee stings, certain foods, or other drugs because it can be administered on the spot by somebody without any medical training.
    EpiPen is sold by Mylan, and the price for a pack of two has increased from about $100 in 2007 to over $600 as of May 2016. Mylan has tried to quell the storm by pointing out that many of their customers pay nothing for the drug because of insurance. Their deflection has been unsuccessful.
    The economist looks for competitors in cases like this. A firm cannot just willy-nilly raise their prices without a competing firm leaping in to give consumers what they want at a lower price. As it turns out, Mylan has a great friend who keeps would-be competitors out of the market, or at least makes it so difficult for them that they eventually go out of business. That friend is the FDA.
    With the FDA, patents, and cozy insurance relationships, Mylan has been able to steadily increase the price of EpiPens without significant market repercussions. Though, the current backlash may push many patients and doctors to look for alternatives. The only problem is that alternatives are few and far between because of government interventions.
    Epinephrine is extremely cheap—just a few cents per dose. The complications come from producing the easy auto-injecting devices. Mylan “owns” their auto-injector device design, so competitors must find work-arounds in their devices to deliver the epinephrine into the patient’s body. This task, coupled with the tangled mess of FDA red tape, has proven to be difficult for would-be EpiPen competitors. It’s like expecting somebody to come up with a new way to play baseball without bases, balls, gloves, or bats, but still getting the game approved by the MLB as a baseball game substitute.
    A French pharmaceutical company offered an electronic device that actually talks people through the steps of administering the drug, but it was recalled because of concerns about it delivering the required dose. Just this year, Teva Pharmaceutical’s attempt at bringing a generic epinephrine injector to market in the US was blocked by the FDA. Adrenaclick and Twinject were unable to get insurance companies on board and so discontinued their injectors in 2012.
    Adrenaclick has since come back, but it is still not covered by many insurance plans, and the FDA has made it illegal for pharmacies to substitute Adrenaclick as a generic alternative to EpiPen. Another company tried to sidestep the whole auto-injector patent barrier by offering prefilled syringes, but the FDA has stalled them, too.
    Mylan has been repeatedly protected from competition, and it has repeatedly (and predictably) increased the price of EpiPens in response. Allowing all of these companies to compete in producing epinephrine auto-injectors would be the best course for all of the many patients who want a cheaper solution for severe allergic reactions.
    One thing is for sure: capitalism is not to blame. Government regulations have choked this market and many others. What we need is a big dose of freedom.
    https://mises.org/blog/lack-epipen-c...ors-fdas-fault

    'We endorse the idea of voluntarism; self-responsibility: Family, friends, and churches to solve problems, rather than saying that some monolithic government is going to make you take care of yourself and be a better person. It's a preposterous notion: It never worked, it never will. The government can't make you a better person; it can't make you follow good habits.' - Ron Paul 1988

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  3. #2

    Sen Manchins daughter is the CEO of Mylan which owns the patent

    $57 to $500
    Dem senator's daughter could face Congress over EpiPen price hike
    BY REBECCA SAVRANSKY
    August 24, 2016 - 10:17 AM EDT

    Sen. Joe Manchin's (D-W.Va.) daughter may have to explain to Congress why her company hiked up the price of EpiPens, Bloomberg News is reporting.

    Heather Bresch serves as the CEO of Mylan, which acquired EpiPen in 2007. Since then, the device's cost has increased 400 percent, from $57 to more than $500.

    Bresch could be called to Capitol Hill next month to explain the price increase, according to Bloomberg.

    Members of Congress have expressed concern over the price increase for the EpiPen, a lifesaving injection for people suffering from severe allergic reactions.

    “I am deeply concerned by this significant price increase for a product that has been on the market for more than three decades, and by Mylan’s failure to publicly explain the recent cost increase, which places a significant burden on parents, schools and other purchasers of the EpiPen,” Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said Tuesday in a statement.

    In a letter Monday, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, asked Bresch to explain the "shocking price increases."

    He declined during an interview on Tuesday to comment about the possibility that Bresch would come before Congress.

    Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.), meanwhile, is calling for a full committee hearing on the cost of EpiPens. In a letter to the chairman and ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Monday, Meng relayed her concerns over the drug price hike.

    As of Tuesday afternoon, no hearing was scheduled on the issue, a spokeswoman for committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz told Bloomberg. The spokeswoman offered no comment beyond that.

    Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, called the price hike a "financial burden on those who desperately need this drug" and expressed a desire for "an investigation of this issue and for the Committee to hold a hearing in September."

    hxxp://thehill.xom/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/292458-dem-senators-daughter-could-face-off-with-congress-over-drug

  4. #3
    EpiPen is sold by Mylan, and the price for a pack of two has increased from about $100 in 2007 to over $600 as of May 2016. Mylan has tried to quell the storm by pointing out that many of their customers pay nothing for the drug because of insurance. Their deflection has been unsuccessful.


    Ridiculous IP rights for corporations on life-saving devices.
    Corrupt FDA approval process.
    Lack of competition in insurance market combined with forced insurance purchasing allowing companies like Mylan to milk the taxpayer.

    ...all leads to sore consumer buttholes.

    That said, they "sort of" have a point. Deals with insurance companies force them to sell to insurance companies typically at a lower price. So they're really saying, I'm guessing, that we're only raising it significantly for out of network and insurance-less buyers. Not exactly a defense, but does highlight that it isn't an across-the-board increase.

    The whole system of IP, marketing, investment, insurance, government approval involvement, etc. of pharmaceuticals is corrupt from the ground up. I used to work for pharma research company. Very depressing.
    When a trumpet sounds in a city, do not the people tremble?
    When disaster comes to a city, has not the Lord caused it? Amos 3:6

  5. #4
    The love of money is the root of all EVIL. . .
    “The spirits of darkness are now among us. We have to be on guard so that we may realize what is happening when we encounter them and gain a real idea of where they are to be found. The most dangerous thing you can do in the immediate future will be to give yourself up unconsciously to the influences which are definitely present.” ~ Rudolf Steiner

  6. #5
    Anybody else wondering why the Epipen price is suddenly a "thing"? Nothing is floated out into the media on this large of a scale without some ulterior motive. Emotional "for the children" connection? Check. Evil pharma origin? Check. Price increases that coincided almost entirely with Obamacare enactment? Check. They're brewing up a Hegelian concotion...so what's the solution that will be offered to fix the problem they created?
    Last edited by devil21; 08-25-2016 at 01:06 PM.
    "Let it not be said that we did nothing."-Ron Paul

    "We have set them on the hobby-horse of an idea about the absorption of individuality by the symbolic unit of COLLECTIVISM. They have never yet and they never will have the sense to reflect that this hobby-horse is a manifest violation of the most important law of nature, which has established from the very creation of the world one unit unlike another and precisely for the purpose of instituting individuality."- A Quote From Some Old Book

  7. #6
    We need a single payer system, so this $600 price can be hidden from us and paid for by printing money
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  8. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by TheTexan View Post
    We need a single payer system, so this $600 price can be hidden from us and paid for by printing money
    Which was always the goal of Obamacare. A wise man once said that the purpose of government is to pretend to fail.
    "Let it not be said that we did nothing."-Ron Paul

    "We have set them on the hobby-horse of an idea about the absorption of individuality by the symbolic unit of COLLECTIVISM. They have never yet and they never will have the sense to reflect that this hobby-horse is a manifest violation of the most important law of nature, which has established from the very creation of the world one unit unlike another and precisely for the purpose of instituting individuality."- A Quote From Some Old Book

  9. #8
    Epi-pens are scary!

    Don't you know drugz can be made with epinephrine?

    No case of anaphylaxis is more important than the War on Drugz!



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