Consumers demand relief from soaring cost of the life-saving EpiPen

So many consumers are complaining about the dramatic increases in the price of the EpiPen that key U.S. Senators are not only listening, they’re demanding accountability from the drug’s maker.

Parents preparing to send their children back to school are paying hundreds, if not thousands of dollars to refill prescriptions for the EpiPen, which is used for life-threatening allergic reactions. Inexpensive to make, EpiPen is an emergency injector that delivers epinephrine that opens airways and reverses severe allergic reactions.

“I’ve heard from one father in Iowa, who recently purchased a refill of his daughter’s EpiPen prescription. He reported that to fill the prescription, he had to pay over $500 for one EpiPen,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, wrote in a sternly worded letter to the CEO of Mylan, a Pennsylvania-based pharmaceutical company that owns EpiPen.

Mylan bought the rights to EpiPen in 2007. Since then the average wholesale price for the drug increased 461 percent, from $56.64 to $317.82, according to NBC News. During that same period, NBC reports the CEO’s total compensation jumped 671 percent from $2.4 million to $18.9 million.

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat and ranking member of the Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights Subcommittee, has asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether the company has violated antitrust laws.

“There does not appear to be any justification for the continual price increases of EpiPen,” Klobuchar wrote in a letter to FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez.

Voices for Affordable Health will continue to monitor developments related to the EpiPen. Have you or a family member been affected by this price spike? Or have you been affected by cost increases of another prescription drug? Share your story with Voices for Affordable Health.