Surely there was something before the EpiPen. Is there a less-expensive method to deliver the same medicine?
According to Wiki, there’s several. No mention of price or availability.
Adrenaclick seems to be the only one available in the USA. Emerade is Europe only, Twinject is gone, Anapen was UK only, Jext is UK, and appears to be gone, Allerject and Auvi-Q were the same thing, both were recalled and won’t return.
It’s called a syringe.
Ah, so you expect people undergoing anaphylaxis to carefully inject themselves, instead of just slamming an autoinjector into their thigh.
Does epinephrine need to be refrigerated? Or can you just buy a bunch of syringes and needles, fill them up, and carry them with you as you would an EpiPen?
When I was caring for my wife, who died from severe asthma 20 years ago, I had syringes and vials of Epinephrine. When she had an emergency attack in my presence, or if she was able to manage it herself, we filled the syringe from the vial and did an intramuscular injection in her thigh. I did that dozens of times over the years. I think she did it once or twice. We had Epipens in case she had an attack alone and was too out of it to manage the syringe and vial. In that case, she would have stuck herself with the pen. We never actually used the Epipen.
My recollection is that the vial and syringe supplies were much cheaper than the pens, but I don’t recall the numbers.
Adrenaclick is a different patent mechanism, and is cheaper.
Otherwise a vial of epinephrine and some syringes is the next best approach.
Good lord - my memories of my last anaphylaxis incident are a bit fuzzy but honest to god I’m not at all sure I could have managed to load a syringe and inject myself. I was pretty out of it.
I’m going to have to ask my doc about the adrenaclick.
During my last attack I had difficulty dialing 911.
(speaking from the veterinary supply side, which is often 2nd priority and more expensive as far as making scarcer resources available) Depending on the manufacturer, you can get Epi that doesn’t need refrigeration. I buy it as one of the CPR rescue drugs for our veterinary crash cart. A 50ml vial (that’s approx. 160 doses of EpiPens) costs $15 from my distributor. Syringes, depending on the type you buy, can be anywhere from $10 to $50 for a box of 100.
Just for kicks, I pulled up the prices of EpiPen and Adrenaclick.
If I go through my insurance (UHC and with my specific plan), EpiPen is, as you can guess, about $600. Same price on GoodRx
Adreaclick is $464 through my insurance and $150-$400 with GoodRx. Also worth noting, that The lowest price is Walmart the highest price was Target and Walgreens is right in the middle.
I take all my (non-mail order) scripts to Walgreens. I’d rather have everything in one place, but I’d run to Walmart to save a few hundred dollars, especially if I did my scripts at Target.
There has been some dirty dealing, that has allowed the huge price spikes. Some medical insurance companies won’t cover alternatives to epipen. Maybe there were some deals made? Competitors have had a hard time getting a foothold in the market. Once you get a monopoly and have a big enough war chest to defend it. The free market capitalist system goes out the window. Or more likely, in your pocket. A situation becoming more common every day.