Still being an asshole I see. Go back to watching your TV.
When it’s the only defense you can scrape together, I guess you go with it…
Do they really go bad in a year? I know that the expiration dates on most medicine is wrong–there have been tests. But this one might be special for some reason.
Still, I wouldn’t put it past this company to have a faster expiration date just to get people to buy more.
MSN well sort of …
Right, I was about to respond with “kind of”.
They are reducing the price for non-insured and those with deductibles to about three times the prices in 2011 instead of six times the price.
Basically, they want to respond to the criticism by doing anything but reduce the list price that gets sent to the insurers. Probably because of negotiated rates and deals, they get some percentage of that list price from the insurers.
That is hardly changing their mind.
The price went up from $100 in 2009 to over $600. Now they offer a savings card that can bring it back to $300. In addition not everyone can get the savings card. If you are uninsured or using government subsidized insurance (e.g. Medicare) you are not eligible.
Don’t forget it is not just epipens they did this to:
@ Everyone else
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^Join date
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^content of all posts to date
We’re done here.
I’m confused. The current GOP meme is that donations to the Clinton Foundation buy access. But you claim the foundation got a $250K donation, presumably before Clinton tweeted about EpiPen and the stock plummeted. Does this mean that maybe it’s not quite so cut-and-dry?
How do we know the Mylan product is at “rock-bottom cost” and that no one else could make a good profit undercutting their price?
There’s an editorial in today’s Wall St. Journal blaming the government for this example of price-gouging, seeing that the FDA supposedly has moved too slowly on approving competitors’ applications for similar devices (no evidence given for the alleged unduly slow approval pace, and it isn’t clear how it’s the FDA’s fault for one injectable device being taken off the market for 26 instances of giving too little medication).
I love how when companies engage in sociopathic price-gouging, it must be the fault of the regulatory process, not the companies’ responsibility to behave with rudimentary ethics.
You know, if we just exterminated bees and wasps, and banned peanuts, shellfish and other allergenic foods, we could eliminate most of the demand for Epi-Pens and the price would go down. :dubious:
Oh, the irony.
Expiration dates are set by long term testing. A stability study is run by putting the medication at various conditions and performing tests at monthly/quarterly/annual intervals. The data are trended and analyzed and an expiration date can be set.
If the medicine has an especially short dating, then so be it. It is what it is. Most of the time you’ll want to get 3 years because that makes the whole supply chain managemnt easier. With a (say) 6 month expiration you’ve got very little buffer if a factory is out of commission, a lot fails, or what have you.
On the other hand, there generally isn’t much call to go past 3 years. It costs money to run the studies and takes a long time (naturally- a 10 year expiry would require >10 years of data) and generally stock will be expected to be consumed in less than 10 years anyway.
HOWEVER, it is not inconceivable that an emergency use product like an epi pen would be kept at a short dating because you want people to throw them away and buy new. I’m not accusing them of this, I really don’t know. I’ve never seen that happen on one of my projects, but then my area is about as far from epi pens as you could get. We’d have no incentive to short date.
The expiry can only be extended by the product owner (MA holder). They would have to do the studies and submit the information to the FDA with the request to extend the expiry. Which, with good data, the FDA would have no problem with. However, someone else can’t do that.
So the only way we could say it’s OK would be for a third party lab to perform a long stability study and publish the results, at which point private citizens could choose to hold their pens longer. But they would technically be going against the instructions (label) and I have no idea what the liability of such a do-gooder organization would be. I can assure you that no medical provider would dare suggest using a product after expiry.
tldr: Only the company can extend the expiry, and any private citizen can use the product as long as they want, but of course if you need it and it doesn’t work…
I found an NIH study that tested old pens and determined that they do weaken significantly after the expiration date, but not down to nothing. The recommendation was that as long as it’s not discolored, the expired dose is better than nothing if really needed.
Off-topic, I have idly considered jabbing myself experimentally with one of my son’s expired pens, both to see what the injection process feels like and to see what the drug itself does, so that I have some idea what I’m doing to him if I ever have to use one for real. Everyone seems to say it’s a bad idea, though…
Yes? What? WHAT?!!
I don’t understand the question. Nothing prevents you from holding the pen 50 years if you want- it’s a free country- but you don’t know it will work… What’s unclear?
It wasn’t advice- I was speaking to the idea that someone (i.e., NIH above) could publish data that it’s OK past the expiry, but it would be the person’s decision to trust that data and go off label…
I’ve been an EMT for over 8 years. Every ambulance service that I have worked for has carried the Epi-pen. Some paramedics may carry a specific dose of epi and a manual syringe, but it’s not normal in my area.
I’m thinkng luci was making a ‘‘Need Answer Fast’’ joke.
There is misinformation about the price of Adrenaclick and generic in a link provided in this thread. The link Adrenaclick Is a Cheaper Alternative to the EpiPen says it is available for $142 with a GoodRX coupon. WRONG. In my area it varies from $500 Brand to $380 generic for 2 adult syringes WITH A COUPON! Have to wonder it the poster is a troll for Adrenaclick.
I was asking for a friend.
I assume you are joking, but that’s brilliant. Epinephrine is just the expensive name for adrenaline and who wouldn’t want the real thing instead of fake shit like caffeine?
ETA, Primetime asthma inhalers were epinephrine and they stayed fresh for years.
Nope - I have just been following this issue due to having Scouts in my Troop who carry the EpiPens, and I have been trained on them as part of Wilderness First Aid. I was able to use one of the computerized ones that walks you through the process like an electronic defibrillator, and I also practiced on a “practice” epipen as well.