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CVS Announces Super Cheap Generic Alternative To EpiPen (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Pharmaceutical giant CVS announced Thursday that it has partnered with Impax Laboratories to sell a generic epinephrine auto-injector for $109.99 for a two-pack -- a dramatic cut from Mylan's Epipen two-pack prices, which list for more than $600 as a brand name and $300 as a generic. The lower-cost auto-injector, a generic form of Adrenaclick, is available starting today nationwide in the company's more than 9,600 pharmacies. Its price resembles that of EpiPen's before Mylan bought the rights to the life-saving devices back in 2007 and raised the price repeatedly, sparking outcry. Helena Foulkes, president of CVS Pharmacy, said the company felt compelled to respond to the urgent need for a more affordable alternative. "Over the past year, nearly 150,000 people signed on to a petition asking for a lower-cost epinephrine auto-injector option and millions more were active in social media searching for a solution," she said in a statement. The price of $109.99 for the alternative applies to those with and without insurance, CVS noted. And Impax is also offering a coupon to reduce the cost to just $9.99 for qualifying patients. Also in the press statement, Dr. Todd Listwa of Novant Health, a network of healthcare providers, noted the importance of access to epinephrine auto-injectors, which swiftly reverse rapid-onset, deadly allergic reactions in some. "For these patients, having access to emergency epinephrine is a necessity. Making an affordable epinephrine auto-injector device accessible to patients will ensure patients have the medicine they need, when they need it."
The issue there is that capitalism wasn't in play.
Due to the barrier to entry posed by drug regulation it cost too much for competitors to enter the same market, and would have remained that way if those assholes had not gone full retard.
Iff the practical economic ability to compete exists, safety regulations are enforced, collusion is prevented, consumers are educated well about their purchase decisions, etc.-- then capitalism works pretty darn great.
You see, a "free market" is actually free, not controlled by government-run bureaucracies that make it very difficult for medical device manufacturers to produce something that ISN'T covered by patents any more.
You know, like epinephrine injectors.
Just because this is the only system you know, don't assume it's the only system that works. Before the 80's when boomers became determined to bleed every possible drop of profit out of the economy, hospitals were run by charities and the worlds most famous doctors worked at university teaching hospitals. Even today the majority of medical breakthroughs happen in universities with government grant money, not pharmaceutical giants.
There is credible evidence that in the unregulated free market once a company achieves market dominance all innovation becomes simple incremental upgrades as research money is transferred to investors. Just look at Apple for a perfect example.
For the people who keep saying regulations keep competition low... yeah, most people are perfectly happy with regulations that require companies to actually prove their devices work, they're well funded and their investors aren't gangsters.. so horrible that the people who invented Shake Weights might not be able to bring us their amazing magnet powered pacemakers I'm sure they were working on.
Good luck trying to properly give yourself that injection while suffering from anaphylactic shock, can't breathe, and are about to pass out. If you think it is so easy then would you care to prove it by giving yourself a proper IM injection of saline while being waterboarded?