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posted by martyb on Tuesday August 23 2016, @07:34AM   Printer-friendly
from the staying-alive-is-getting-more-expensive dept.

EpiPen's price has ballooned about 400% since 2008, rising from about a $100 list price to $500 today. The EpiPen is one of the most important life-saving medical innovations for people with severe food allergies—which affect as many as 15 million Americans and 1 in 13 children in the United States. But its price has exploded over the last decade despite few upgrades to the product itself. The product's lack of competitors is likely a significant driver of the costs. [...] [The] EpiPen enjoys a near-monopoly on the market with annual sales of more than $1.3 billion and nearly 90% U.S. market share.

At Fortune, NYT, The Hill.


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  • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday August 23 2016, @02:56PM

    by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Tuesday August 23 2016, @02:56PM (#392151) Homepage
    A natural steady state in a free market with any significant barrier to entry is the price-gauging oligopoly.
    You are still seeing the free market even if it's not doing what you want a free market to do. But you're right, blaming the free market is wrong, as the invisible hand is actually a back-hander (and yes, that is deliberately a 3-way play on words).
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