The Pros And Cons Of The Epipen

Pharmaceutical drugs are something that millions of Americans depend on during a lifetime. Drugs such as the EpiPen by Mylan is one of the medications that can make the difference of life and death for someone with severe allergies. The EpiPen is an auto-injector that releases an immediate dosage of epinephrine (adrenaline) through the body that can reverse the symptoms of a life-threatening allergic reaction. There are millions of people prescribed with this medication every year, so one can assume that it should be easy to obtain, wrong. The price of the EpiPen has skyrocketed over 574% since 2007 and that makes it more difficult for people to afford it. This drastic price increase of such an important pharmaceutical is an unjustified act that hurts the American consumer. Consequently, there was an enormous backlash to the inflation as it was viewed as irrational. The

To benefit the people who can’t afford the $600-700 brand version of the EpiPen, Mylan’s subsidiary launched a more generic version of the EpiPen on December 16, 2016. (Benson, 2017). It is $300 for a pack of two. Although it still may seem expensive, it contains the same drug, formulation, and functionality as the brand name, plus the price has been cut 50% (Benson, 2017). Another pro of the company is that it has a program in place called “EpiPen4Schools.” This program provides free EpiPen’s to schools all around the United States so the school does not have to fully feel the effects of the price increase, avoiding bigger budget costs. According to the EpiPen website, more than 700,000 free EpiPen Auto-Injectors have been distributed to over 65,000 schools that participate in the program, which is approximately half of all U.S. schools (Phillip, 2016). They can help all they can, but it’s understandable that they cannot just drop the price. They are one of the only trustworthy companies in the