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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: 1) by khallow on Tuesday August 23 2016, @10:42PM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday August 23 2016, @10:42PM (#392354) Journal

    There is a powerful argument for state-owned, public-funded medical research.

    And that powerful argument is?

    Let the bread heads do the easy less-risky stuff and the rest of us can pull together and look after ourselves.

    There is nothing too risky for the private world. There are purely private markets that have risk that makes the medical industry look tame (such as the sea salvage industry or oil well fire fighters). They do just fine without government funding.

    I think the real powerful argument here is that government is notorious for coming up with rules and spending that don't reduce risk or make us safer, including the medical industry and medical research, but make everything cost a lot more.

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by jelizondo on Tuesday August 23 2016, @11:55PM

    by jelizondo (653) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday August 23 2016, @11:55PM (#392378) Journal

    Oh, my god.

    You mean as long as it is profitable it is free enterprise and we hate the government; as soon as large loses loom, flip-flop, we love the government and please bail us out.

    Please stop watching Fox News, their universe is completely different from the one you and I live in.

    • (Score: 0, Troll) by khallow on Wednesday August 24 2016, @12:20AM

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday August 24 2016, @12:20AM (#392382) Journal

      You mean as long as it is profitable it is free enterprise and we hate the government; as soon as large loses loom, flip-flop, we love the government and please bail us out.

      You know, you could think. So let's try that. What is the research that is so expensive and so risky, yet still has a huge return on investment to justify public funding rather than private? Sorry, it doesn't exist. Even stuff like space stations or large particle colliders are within the grasp of the private world. Instead, we see the usual squandering of public funds on scientific white elephants, and people with a remarkable willful ignorance of economics.