← Return to search results
Back to Prindle Institute

epipen

Posted on

Should EpiPens be as Expensive as iPhones?

The EpiPen price controversy has been in the news for over a month now. For those not aware of what I am referring to, let me give a short recap. In 2007, a single EpiPen, a device for injecting a drug that reverses severe allergic reactions, cost about $47, according to an August 25, 2016 article from NPR. By this summer the price of a single EpiPen rose to $284. What’s more is that EpiPens are no longer available as single pens, but rather only as double packs. So, the price to fill an EpiPen prescription now tops $600.

Continue reading “Should EpiPens be as Expensive as iPhones?”

Posted on

Pricing the EpiPen

American drug prices have long been the object of controversy, from the price hiking on AIDS treatments conducted by the now-infamous Martin Shkreli or the $1,000 per pill Hepatitis C treatment that prompted Senate investigation. The average American spent $695 a year on drugs ten years ago, and now spends $935. Recently, the pharmaceutical Mylan received extensive backlash for the increase in the price of EpiPens, which are used in emergency situations to save someone from a life-threatening allergic reaction. EpiPens now cost $600, a 450% increase from their price in 2004. Analysts have determined that the cost of the drug within each Epipen is about one dollar.

Continue reading “Pricing the EpiPen”