Mylan to sell generic EpiPen
Firm offers a cheaper version of allergy shot amid continued ire over its price hikes.
The maker of EpiPens will start selling a cheaper, generic version of the emergency allergy shots as the furor over repeated U.S. price hikes persists — and looming competition threatens its near-monopoly.
Despite its second move in five days to make EpiPens more affordable for consumers, England-based Mylan still faces condemnation from critics who accuse it of price-gouging. They say Mylan has not reduced the $608 list price for a pair of EpiPen auto injectors nor explained why it raised the price more than 500% from $94 after acquiring the product in 2007.
“More must be done — and more quickly — to make this life-saving drug more affordable,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said in a statement Monday. “Mylan may appear to be moving in the right direction, but its announcement raises as many questions as solutions — including why the price is still astronomically high, and whether its action is a preemptive strike against a competing generic.”
Mylan, which mainly sells generic medicines, said Monday that it will begin selling its generic version for $300 for a pair of EpiPens, in doses for adults or children, like the current EpiPens. That will still bring Mylan tens of millions of dollars while helping it retain market share against current and future brand-name and generic competition.
EpiPens are used to stop potentially fatal allergic reactions to insect bites and stings and to foods such as nuts and eggs. People usually keep multiple EpiPens handy at home, school or work, but the syringes, prefilled with the hormone epinephrine, expire after a year.
Some analysts have estimated that the tiny amount of epinephrine in an EpiPen is worth barely $1 and that the auto-injectors might cost as little as $5.
There’s currently little competition for EpiPen. Rival Adrenaclick carries a list price of $461, and there’s a generic version, but doctors typically prescribe EpiPen, originally launched in 1987, because it’s so well known.
Parents doing back-toschool preparations encountered sticker shock at pharmacy counters this month and began protesting to politicians and on social media, leading to an uproar in an election year when drug prices already are a hot issue and other drugmakers have been blasted for astronomical price increases.
On Thursday, Mylan offered more financial aid to patients getting EpiPens, including coupons covering up to $300 off patient co-payments, triple the $100 discounts previously offered.
Coupon cards are a standard pharmaceutical industry strategy, one that leaves employers and taxpayers still footing at least two-thirds of a big bill — and everyone facing higher insurance premiums eventually. And like other drugmakers that raise prices sharply when generic competition is on the horizon, Mylan has been making bigger annual price increases on EpiPens the last few years.
A generic competitor was expected in 2015 but has been delayed. Now that product and a couple rival brand-name ones could hit the U.S. market in mid- to late 2017. Then, last Thursday, the compounding pharmacy Imprimis Pharmaceuticals said it hopes to sell a version of the allergy shot in a few months for about $100 for two injectors.
Mylan shares rose 19 cents Monday to close at $43.22.