Epinephrine ("epi", adrenaline) is the quintessential life-saving medication that most represents the power and promise of modern medicine. Is has been co-opted by greedy Wall Street companies, putting millions of lives at risk through extortionist pricing.
We are are not just boiling mad at the injustice and dysfunction of the situation. We are doing something about it. We are taking control of the epinephrine market -- all of us. We are Americans. We believe in freedom from tyranny. We help each other. We create solutions. Together we win. Join us. Save a life. Save a lot of lives. |
EpiPenThe current treatment is also the current problem due to costs. There are similar alternatives.
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Other Short-Term OptionsWe explore and explain options that may be available today.
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Long-Term OptionsThe best long-term options are ones that we come up with and control as consumers. We are so done with Wall Street holding our health hostage.
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Take Action -- Be Part of Saving Lives
Epi Option |
Availability |
Cost |
Value |
Deaths to Cost |
Effectiveness |
EpiPen Auto-Injector |
Everywhere |
Outrageous |
Terrible |
Counting |
Best |
Generic Auto-Injector |
Limited |
Problematic |
Mediocre |
Some |
Best |
Inhaled |
None - (Future?) |
NA |
NA |
NA |
Poor |
Under-The-Tongue |
None - (Yet) |
NA |
NA |
None Expected* |
Good? |
Compounded Epi |
Scarce |
Reasonable? |
Good? |
None Expected |
Best |
Nasal |
None - (Yet) |
NA |
NA |
None Expected* |
Good? |
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EPI OPTIONS
EPIPEN AUTO-INJECTOR
Pros Readily available, what people are familiar with, relatively easy to use
Cons Outrageously expensive for a lifesaving medicine, bulky, expires after only one year, have to stab yourself
Price GoodRx.com: $600-700 for 2-pak with coupon - more without (9-5-16)
Options Maybe congress will get them to lower the price(?!), coupons?, generic coming ($300?), don't put up with it
Comments/Future
1. Be part of changing things.
2. Expired is better than none. The picture above is my own EpiPen's given to me by a physician family member who used similar expired EpiPens for his own children who have severe allergies. No one can officially recommend using expired medications. However, the reality of the chemistry is that most medicines are still 90% present and effective well beyond their expiration date. Docs know this and this is why they often have expired medicines around for the use of their families or themselves.
3. Part of what we need to create are systems for being able to tell when a medicine is "actually" expired in reality, vs a date on a bottle. This will put the control in the hands of the patients and users. This will only happen if we build it. It would greatly cut into the profits of the pharmaceutical industry, so don't think it will happen without patient direction in healthcare. Epinephrine (clear) starts to become colored as it breaks down -- this is not rocket science.
ADRENACLICK (AND GENERIC)
AUTO-INJECTOR
Pros Available through regular pharmacies, less expensive alternative to EpiPen, generic version available
Cons Expensive, bulky, people aren't as familiar with it, may need to learn to use, expires like EpiPen
Price Goodrx.com: $300-400 with coupon, a couple chains $144-200 (generic?) with coupon for 2-pak (9-5-16)
Options $150 ballpark is getting warmer to reasonable, not there yet for something so important
Comments/Future
As above for EpiPen. Coupon games are so annoying. We need to work together to get to a simple working system for medicines for all of us -- especially such important ones as epinephrine.
COMPOUNDED EPI PRODUCTS
Pros Total flexibility in making what a patient needs in any form, maybe even better than commercial
Cons Relatively unknown, pharma has really put them in a box politically, banned from similar to commercial
Price ?? Less than $100??
Options We are working on this, this is especially where we need your help to dedicate the time and resources
Comments/Future
Compounding pharmacies can custom make a huge variety of medication preparations, including injectables and IV medicines. There is tremendous potential to come up with reasonably priced epi form alternatives by working with compounding pharmacies. It will take some work however. We need quick fixes which may not be terribly polished. Then we need to work with them to come up with more polished variations. Yes, we will want commercially produced options down the road. And we have some great ideas for making even better epi preparations than are currently on the market.
SUBLINGUAL EPI
Credit: Andreas Schoeps, www.adreasschoeps.de