Hackers Offer a DIY Alternative To The $600 EpiPen (ieee.org)

After the pharmaceutical company Mylan raised the price of a 2-pen set of EpiPens by nearly $500 over the course of 9 years, Michael Laufer and his "pharma-hacking confederates at the Four Thieves Vinegar Collective," decided to make their own budget-friendly EpiPens. IEEE Spectrum reports: Today they released a video and instructions showing DIYers how to make a generic EpiPen using materials that can be bought online for about $30. They call it the EpiPencil. "It functions just as well as an EpiPen," Laufer says in the video, after demonstrating the assembly and showing that it works. "With no special training, anybody can use it." An EpiPen is just a spring-loaded syringe filled with the pharmaceutical epinephrine. Laufer's video shows how to assemble the "open source medical device" and provides links for where to buy the components online. He stops short of telling viewers how to get their hands on the drug, noting that you need a prescription for it. But Laufer tells IEEE Spectrum in an interview that it's easy to buy epinephrine online from a chemical supplier, and he hopes viewers will do just that. "There's a small but hopefully growing subculture of people who are buying the active ingredients of drugs," he says. "It's encouraging to see people take control of their own health."

Comments

Re:Lack of government is the problem

[GLMDesigns]

You think there is a lack of government? I think there is too much. Especially regarding the federal government.

How about we agree on this.

Reduce the Federal Government to it's constitutionally limited responsibilities and you and your ilk have your state government(s) show the rest of us how it's done?

Build your nirvana; your ideal state. If it works as you, of course, know it will then people will flock to your state; and other states will adopt your platform. Then we can have fools like me live in their foolish way in their states and you and everyone who knows better will live in a wonderful state where everything works just fine.

Howz that sound to you?