If you suffer from allergies to food, insect stings, medications or latex and are at risk of anaphylaxis, an EpiPen could save your life. That is, if you have one. As children head back to school all over the country, parents are struggling to find EpiPens to safely secure in their backpacks, amongst the shortage. According to a recent article by Consumer Reports, Costco, CVS, Healthwarehouse.com and Walgreens all confirmed that EpiPens, as well as their generic version, are in short supply or on back order.
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The ongoing shortage has been attributed to several different factors. Mylan — EpiPen’s distributor — cited manufacturing delays caused by Pfizer — its manufacturing partner. EpiPen’s shelf life has also played a role in the shortage. The medication has a typical shelf life of around 18 months, if stored properly. If exposed to light, heat or air, epinephrine can disintegrate. Customers are urged to restock EpiPens one a year, and back-to-school is a popular time to do so.
The FDA extended the expiration date of some EpiPens by four months in an effort to help reduce the shortage. The extension only applies to 0.3 milligram doses of both EpiPen and its generic counterpart, with expiration dates between April and December 2019. Mylan and Pfizer said they are working closely together and with the FDA to help expedite shipments and increase production.
EpiPen has been a topic of controversy as of late due to their skyrocketing prices. The medication contains about $1 worth of epinephrine, yet has become outrageously expensive. Mylan is facing increased public scrutiny for price gouging; the list price for a two-pack of EpiPens is more than $600, up from a little over $100 in 2007.
Mylan has tried to downplay the drug's outrageous cost by saying that most patients have insurance coverage and they offer coupons to help reduce copayments. People with high deductibles may still end up paying most of the costs out of pocket, however, and people have to purchase new EpiPens every year, even if they don't use them, due to the one-year expiration date. Some, however, are taking a gamble by keeping their expired EpiPens in lieu of spending hundreds of dollars on a new set.