Massive price increases on EpiPens raise alarm Chris Woodyard and Mary Jo Layton, USA TODAY and Asbury Park (N.J.) Press 12:28 p.m. EDT August 23, 2016
Two U.S. senators are raising concerns about massive price increases on a drug used under emergency conditions for food allergy reactions to see if they are justified.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has written the manufacturer, Mylan, asking for the reasons behind the price boosts for EpiPen, an epinephine auto-injector used to treat allergy reactions that has seen its price rise from $57 in 2007 to about $500 today. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., wants the Federal Trade Commission to take a look.
"I am concerned that the substantial price increase could limit access to a much-needed medication,” Grassley wrote in the letter to Mylan CEO Heather Bresch.
Since the drug is used for emergency treatment, it's not only patients who buy it, but public schools and other government institutions, Grassley says.
“Many of the children who are prescribed EpiPens are covered by Medicaid and therefore the taxpayers are picking up the tab for this medication,” Grassley wrote.
Klobuchar says her family is touched directly in hearing about the price increases on the drug.
"Many Americans, including my own daughter, rely on this life-saving product to treat severe allergic reactions,” Klobuchar said in letter. “Although the antitrust laws do not prohibit price gouging, regardless of how unseemly it may be, they do prohibit the use of unreasonable restraints of trade to facilitate or protect a price increase."
She called the price increase unjustified, putting "life-saving treatment out of reach to the consumers who need it most."
There is no generic equivalent for EpiPen, and no direct competitor. Plus, consumers with high-deductible healthy insurance policies will have to pay more out of pocket to cover the high costs for the drug.
Mylan issued a statement that did not specifically defend the price increases, but noted many consumers may be exposed to them now that they have been switched to a high-deductible policies. In the past, they might have only had a $25 co-pay and didn't know the full price of the drug. Now they must pick up the total tab.
“More and more parents are complaining over the last month that the cost of EpiPens has gone through the roof, making it very difficult,” said David Namerow, a Fair Lawn, N.J., pediatrician.
“They seem to be taking advantage of the most vulnerable kids with food allergies, and the parents have no alternative,” he said.
Up to 6% of children have food allergies, with studies showing up to 18% of them having reactions after eating something at school that causes them to have a reaction, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Nearly nine in 10 schools nationally had one or more students with food allergies. And since EpiPen expires after a year, schools and consumers must buy it annually.
