On Thursday, Mylan, the pharmaceutical company that makes the life-saving emergency allergy treatment, EpiPen, announced that it would create a “savings card” for users who may not be able to afford the pen.
This comes after the company came under fire for its recently heightened EpiPen prices.
CBS News reports that the price of EpiPens has increased by more than 480 percent since 2009, two years after Mylan purchased the device from Merck.
A two-pack used to cost pharmacies about $100.Today, the exact same two-pack costs $608.61.
While Mylan is not backing down on the prices, they are now offering more options to help make the treatment more affordable.
The company’s new savings card will be worth $300 for patients who would have to pay in full for the treatment, equating to about 50% price cut for those who may not be able to fully afford the EpiPens. Some uninsured and government insured (Medicaid, Medicare) would be able to receive some financial assistance through Mylan’s Patient Assistance Program.
To read Mylan’s complete statement on the new discounts, please visit here.
However, the price hike remains troublesome to users, parents of users and schools.
“Unfortunately it’s really going to affect our parents with the price hike, some of the parents may not be able to afford the cost of the EpiPens for their students that go to school,” said Paulette Rozneck, the Student Health Services Coordinator for LISD. “Most of the parents keep a pen with them and then give one for school so I don’t know how that’s going to affect them, if they’re going to be able to afford that or not.”
Melissa Reeves, a nurse at Evans Middle School, says the increase is worrisome. She wants to make sure all of her students who absolutely need EpiPens are not only able to use them, but are able to get them in the first place.
“That’s horrible because parents even had difficulty paying for the price they were before the price increase, because if you have a high deductible insurance that leaves a lot of cash out of pocket,” said Reeves.
Local pharmacists say they don’t believe the savings card will be applicable to everyone and that EpiPen should have never gotten this expensive to begin with.
“There’s still a really large balance remaining for the patient unfortunately on something that used to cost only $100,” said Lauren Cline, a pharmacist at the Drug Emporium. “With it costing a lot less, months ago, even doing back to 2007, there’s nothing different that they’re doing to make the product. It’s the same, so there’s really no reason why it should go up for everyone else.”
