By now you must have heard about the EpiPen scandal. It costs parents today more than $600 (the cost that many parents must pay due to high deductible of their insurance plans or their insurance plans do not cover) to buy the EpiPen for their kids who may need it and it must be replace yearly. The price of EpiPen has risen 450% in the last few years. It's not a new drug or anything like that -- it actually existed since 1970s and the drug epinephrine in the EpiPen cost the drug manufacturer less than $1. If you add the injection for the drug, it shouldn't cost the drug manufacturer more than $5. And they are selling it for $300 per pen and you can only buy it in 2-pack, so it will cost the parents at least $600. For many parents, it's a matter of life and death for their children. About 1-2% of children who have allergies will need the EpiPen in their backpacks in case they accidentally eat or come into contact with the allergen that could trigger a life-threatening allergic reaction called anaphylaxis which is a medical emergency. The child/patient basically may go into hypotensive shock and may die in front of your eye unless the child is injected with a proper dose of epinephrine right away while being transported to a medical facility for better care. I just checked with my relatives in Europe and the currently the EpiPen costs 40.40€ in France (about U.S. $45 for 1 and $84 for 2). In Belgium and the Netherlands, it costs 43.03€ (about U.S. $49). Last year, Turing Pharmaceuticals raised the price of the drug Daraprim by 5,556 percent (from US$13.5 to US$750 per tablet), It's also an old drug. The drug is for Toxoplasmosis -- a parasitic infection that immunocompromised patients such as HIV and cancer patients often have. It's outrageous and it's unbelievable that U.S. Congress allows drug companies to do this. Government programs such as Medicaid and Medicare cannot negotiate drug prices in the U.S. It's a national disgrace. Even tiny European countries such as Belgium and the Netherlands are able to negotiate drug prices for their citizens but the U.S. Congress allow drug companies to charge American citizens with outrageous prices. The reason I mention about Epi-Pen and Daraprim is that our local Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, she is against legislation that allows the importation of drugs from civilized and industrialized countries such as Canada, Australia, and the European Union. Pharmaceutical companies have been one of Congresswoman Lofgren's biggest contributors to her campaigns. The last election cycle (2014), the drug companies contributed $19,000 to her campaign and she has consistently voted NO on legislation that makes it cheaper for American consumers to buy drugs overseas. For $19,000, she is willing to put American children at risk of dying if their parents cannot afford the $600 Epi-Pen. Just go to opensecrets.org and see for yourself and while you are at the website, check out how much our Congresswoman Lofgren got for throwing American professionals and veteran families who work in high-tech under the bus with her corrupted H-1B program. By not punishing her, you are sending a disturbing message to the whole world saying that a politician will be rewarded handsomely by selling out her/his constituents without penalty. Personal Drug Importation Fairness Act of 2015 (our Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren is AGAINST this bill) It fits into her pattern of selling out American citizens out for corporate interests. If her Congressional vote is not for sale, then what is it? She is protecting the profit margin of drug companies. She pretends that she is for safety reasons (yeah if you believe in her lies and deception). The drugs selling in Canada, Australia, Japan, and Western Europe are exactly the same as in the U.S., they are from the same drug companies with the same ingredients, etc. The only difference are the labels and the prices. Testimonials 14 September 2008 Just Who is Zoe Lofgren? Rob Sanchez recently blogged here on Lou Dobb’s latest report on guest worker visas–and the key role Zoe Lofgren is playing in attempts to expand guest worker visa availability. http://blog.vdare.com/archives/2008/09/12/lou-dobbs-on-guest-workers/ What is telling is just who is funding Zoe Lofgren’s campaign. Her top 5 contributors are: Cisco Systems $11,000 Microsoft Corp $ 8,000 National Venture Capital Assn $ 8,000 Sun Microsystems $ 8,000 Seagate Technology $ 7,900 Now, where I suspect the real conflict of interest comes in through her husband’s corporate law firm. 124boyz July 26, 2011 at 3:09PM Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., paid her husband's firm, Collins and Day, $285,481 over the past six years, the report says. Lofgren says her husband, John Marshall Collins, has dissolved the firm, which provided accounting, fundraising and regulatory compliance services. In addition, Lofgren's campaign paid John Marshall Collins PC, a second company controlled by her husband, $62,705 for rent and office services, the report foundSocratesDowntown Verona, NJ 1 day agoAnd now...permanently on sale in Canada, often with no prescription necessary, the Mylan EpiPen, retail cost $131 USD. (My comment: sounds like our Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren -- Oops, I forgot, American high-tech professionals already call her by that name -- now she is corporate P for big PhRMA too? )
ChadCrook 10 hours ago Let's take a stroll down
memory lane.http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/22/us/22heather.html?_r=0 · 16 Recommend AH2 NYC 13 hours ago That is very correct. The entire apparatus the cheap generic drug plus the simple delivery system probably costs less than $10 for Mylan to manufacture. They then retail them for $300 or more each. Why. Because they can get away with it. Why. Because our government does nothing to stop them from doing so. Our government has even made it illegal for Americans to buy EpiPens from Canada where they are far cheaper.
· 17 Recommend elisabeth mtrconnecticut 10 hours ago My son has moderate food allergies, but has never (knock wood) come close to having an anaphylactic reaction. Yet, his doctor recommended an Epi-Pen, and as soon as we disclose any allergies, so do his schools and camp. So, for a child with only a vague possibility of a severe allergic reaction, we are required to keep an Epi-Pen at his school, his after-school program, his camp, and at home. That's two twin-packs every year, for a cost of over $1,000. And then every year, we get to throw out the unused but expired ones, and have to buy them all over again. Our insurance only covered Auvi-Q, so when that was pulled off the shelves last year, we had to pay the entire $1,200 Epi-Pen cost out of pocket. It was quite tempting to say, "Well, our son's never really had a serious allergic reaction, so maybe we can just do without...." The fact that even a middle class family may be forced to choose between their child's potential health and the cost of medication is reprehensible. Once R&D and production costs are recouped, there should be mandated limits on what monopolies can charge for life-saving drugs. Or such monopolies must not be allowed to occur in the pharmaceutical world to begin with. Once again, most other "developed" countries seemed to have figured this out. Why do we lag so far behind?
· 28 Recommen charlieogden 2 hours ago A year or so ago the Times did an
excellent series on medical care, including a hard look at the price of asthma
medications.
· 26 Recommend DoraNY 10 hours ago I am outraged. I have a severely food allergic child, who requires an Epipen be kept at school, at home, and an extra in case one malfunctions. I went to fill his prescription and I was told by CVS that the cost is $1,835 for three sets. I have insurance, but I have a "high deductible" plan (probably the effect of Obamacare). So I have to pay $1,835 for life-saving medication for my child. This is unconscionable. I called CVS and CVS blamed Mylan. I called Mylan and Mylan blamed the retail resellers. No one tales blame for the outrageous cost that I will have to bear. Again, it is unconscionable. If Obama can put in place the failed and flawed Obamacare, he should have enacted laws to regulate pharmaceutical companies. I understand they have to make a profit but it is beyond comprehension that they are allowed to rape and plunder parents' savings accounts for life saving medication that is NOT a choice. Someone needs to put a law in place. I hope government officials are reading this and that someone works to stop Mylan and the pharmacies from enacting these prices.
· 23 Recommend LoomyAustralia 10 hours ago Living in Australia we
have Universal Health Care and also the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS)
whereby our Government subsidizes the costs of all Drugs to Citizens whilst
also negotiating the prices of the drugs with Pharmaceutical Companies so that
the costs are more reasonable than the Criminal Highway Robbery they charge
Americans and no other Country accepts. It is time America followed the rest of the developed World and
gives its Citizens efficient affordable Universal Health Coverage and Care. · · 254 Recommend Cynthia WardHonolulu 10 hours ago Not only did the cost of Epipens go up 450% since 2007, the CEO's compensation went up 671%. Stock prices tripled and lobbying expenses went from $270,000 to 1.2 million. See this eye-opening NBC article athttp://www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer/mylan-execs-gave-themselves-rai... ·
· 132 Recommend Elizabeth BeckerAsheville, North Carolina 13 hours ago Almost everyone in my
family has some kind of life-threatening allergy and, like the author, we all
carry EpiPens wherever we go. Given the current prices, any given family
gathering is likely to include tens of thousands of dollars of EpiPens. My
father has "died" and been resuscitated from anaphylactic shock three
times; if there hadn't been a bunch of EpiPens around (administered with a
doctor on the phone while waiting for the ambulance to arrive), he probably
would have died and, for want of a better description, stayed that way. ·
· 44 Recommend J N HullPhiladelphia, Pa 13 hours ago As a 40 yr ER nurse - I
know what epi can do. ·
· 93 Recommend |
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