Why are EpiPens so expensive?Ī lack of competition is one of the reasons that Mylan, the company that makes EpiPens, can continue to increase the price.

It is not much cheaper at other pharmacies and can still cost as much as $400, even with coupons and insurance combined. For a person with a high deductible insurance plan (or no health insurance at all), an EpiPen Two-Pak costs $622.09 at Walgreens. But the high cost of EpiPens is not news. The medication is not costly it's the injector that's expensive. The dose delivered by the adult EpiPen is an inexpensive 0.3 mg. The device makes it easy to keep an emergency dose available and simple to administer correctly. The problem is that for people at risk for anaphylaxis, epinephrine needs to be handy and given quickly when an allergy exposure occurs. Susan Farrell, emergency room physician and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School.Įpinephrine is cheap - about $5 per milligram. 'If a reaction is that severe, epinephrine basically saves a person's life until she or he can get definitive healthcare,' says Dr. The throat tightens, the tongue swells, blood pressure can crash, and it can become hard, maybe even impossible, to breathe. When a person with a life-threatening allergy is exposed to his or her 'kryptonite' (be it peanuts, bee stings, latex, or something else) the result is an intense immune response called anaphylaxis.

Epic pen cost