Students and staff here at Sahuaro have severe to deadly food and seasonal allergies. The most common way to treat a food allergic reaction is using a Epipen (Epinephrine) or Adernaclick, both of which have increased in price.  The Epipen especially has seen an increase. In 2004 the Epipen’s price was 50 dollars; in 2007 the Epipen’s price went up 7 dollars.  Today, the price of a two-pack Epipen is $608, a very high increase in price.

It affects people because you have to purchase a two-pack; one can’t be left at home because you may need more than just one shot (dose) of medicine to help the reaction. For kids,  a 6-pack needs to be purchased, two with the child, two at home, and two with the nurse at school.  That is a total of $1,824.00.

The Epipen increased in price because the insurance coverage hid the increase in price.  That means that the end users had no clue about the price increase until they lost their insurance, or until their deductibles ended up going up sky high.   So Obamacare now forces parents into the position where they have to pay cash for the EpiPens, or pay more for their insurance coverage.  Another reason for the increase is because the federal government prevents competition, the Epipen’s prices only went sky high because they had no other competition in the market except for the drug Epinephrine which isn’t patented. In Europe, there is more than one competitor for the Epipen, but on the other hand in the United States, the FDA prevents competitors from being able to come into the market.

The majority of people’s lives depend on having an Epipen on them in case of emergency such as an allergic reaction.  The medicine that they get shot into their leg basically saves their life because the allergic reaction could be possibly deadly or life threatening.  But luckily, the Epipen company, EpiPen4Schools^® offers free Epipens to our school.  The company has handed out 700,000 Epipens.