A COSTLY EPI-DEMIC
Pricey ‘pens’ selling on NY black market
Big Apple hustlers are cashing in on the EpiPen price hike, hawking illegal packs of the medication online for up to $450, The Post has learned. Sellers say they are simply filling a niche in the market — which has seen prices for epinephrine injection devices skyrocket to as high as $608fora twopack, infuriating patients who need the drug’s emergency-antidote to allergic reactions. “We saw on the TV a few days ago that people couldn’t get them so we put up the ad,” said a Bronx man who gave his name as Mike Black and said his 5-year-old son has a peanut allergy. He said he was selling an extra EpiPen Jr. 2-pack on Craigslist for $300 to “help someone out.” In less than a day, Black told The Post, he got four online inquiries about the pen. Ultimately he sold it for $180.
Another peddler, who said he was based in Chelsea, posted an ad asking $450. After a reporter contacted him, the seller deleted the ad.
An offering in Brownsville, Brooklyn for a $450 EpiPen Jr. pack was paired with the caption: “No games no need for it found a different remedy for my boyfriend.”
The offers come after pharmaceutical company Mylan NV jacked up the price of the drug by 600 percent. But experts say the EpiPen black market endangers buyers.
“EpiPens are prescription-only for a reason. They have a short shelf life of about one year and need to be replaced. If people buy one . . . but it’s expired, they could die,” said Arthur Levin, director of the Center for Medical Consumers. But sellers like Black don’t care. “I help people,” he said. “So whoever is mad at that can go suck something.”