CHARLOTTE — The drug company Mylan will launch a generic EpiPen in the upcoming weeks.
EpiPens can be the difference between life and death involving severe allergic reactions.
Mylan said the generic will be identical to the brand name-name version and cost half as much.
South Charlotte mother Jennifer Klein-Mentas found out her daughter Ally was severely allergic to tree nuts when Ally was two years old.
"She swelled up and she was rushed to the hospital," Klein-Mentas said. "It was terrifying. Everything was closing up, her eyes, her lips were swelling. She was in misery."
The family's been carrying EpiPens ever since.
Action 9's Jason Stoogenke was told the medicine inside an EpiPen, epinephrine, only costs about $1, but many patients pay hundreds for a twin-pack. So, Klein-Mentas said,
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"For the last year, I've been carrying an expired EpiPen, but the solution says, if it's not discolored, it should be OK," Klein-Mentas said.
However, she is nervous having the expired medication.
“This is life and death,” she said. "I'm very nervous. I'm very nervous and it's been horrible."
One reason for the brand name's price is lack of competition.
Stoogenke was told another drug company, Teva Pharmaceuticals, has been trying to bring a competing product to market and had trouble getting the Food and Drug Administration’s approval, but is still hoping to launch it at some point.
The FDA and Teva wouldn't comment on their previous interactions.
"I think it's a shame that when something is a matter of life or death, you have to worry about cost," Klein-Mentas said.
Congress and national media outlets have honed in on the issue and last week, under pressure, Mylan announced new EpiPen discounts and the decision to make the generic product that costs $300 for a twin-pack instead of $600 for the brand name.
Mohamed Jalloh with the American Pharmacists Association sayssaid it's still not clear how much patients will have to pay, especially because, like the brand name, the generic won't have much competition.
"Keep in mind, if we only have one generic, or one company making a generic, it can still be pretty expensive," he said.
He expects the patients' portion for the generic to still be lower than for the brand name.
"That's a very interesting response to all of the (negative) media coverage," University of North Carolina-Charlotte professor Jennifer Troyer said. "It's likely that introducing a generic will have less of a negative effect on Mylan's bottom line than decreasing the price of the EpiPen. Having a generic will be better for consumers with high-deductible plans, and they can still charge a high price to consumers in generous insurance plans who don't switch to the generic."