About Epinephrine

Epinephrine, also known commonly as adrenaline, is life-saving for patients with systemic allergic reactions. It acts quickly to stimulate the heart and improve breathing, drop blood pressure, reduce hives and swelling.

Many potentially life-saving drugs, such as epinephrine autoinjectors, are grossly overpriced. This steep pricing is due to pharmaceutical companies being able to monopolize the market and cut generic name brands out of the competition.

For being such an important drug, autoinjectors' prices are extremely steep. Despite more and more patients needing them, prices only continue to increase. Between 2007 and 2016, EpiPen prices skyrocketed as Mylan took over. 2 Epipens cost $113.27 in 2007, and in 2016, costed $730.33.

There are many concerns involving Mylan's commercialization of the epinephrine injector. For one, nearly every state has laws concerning stocking EpiPens at school. This, along with Mylan having a near monopoly on the autoinjector, proves concerning as it appears to be an advertisement.

Even generic brands still have an average wholesale price of $494.01 for two in 2015 and require learning a different technique than the widely known EpiPen's.

These auto injectors cost less than a dollar of epinephrine to make, making these profits grossly disproportionate to the amount patients need to shell out just to ascertain their health.