UF students affected by EpiPen price hike

Although Jamie Dubow has never needed to use her EpiPen, she came close during the Summer semester of her freshman year.

Dubow, 20, had just eaten dinner at UF’s Gator Corner Dining Center when she felt her airways begin to swell and her heart beat faster. Severely allergic to nuts, she panicked, thinking she was going into anaphylactic shock, a consequence of an allergic reaction that can kill if left untreated.

Luckily, it was just a false alarm, the UF psychology junior said, and she didn’t have to use an EpiPen, an auto-injector of epinephrine. But now, the cost for the shot of medicine that could save her life has skyrocketed.

A pack of two EpiPens cost $100 in 2007. But since Mylan, the company that distributes the EpiPens, began hiking up its products’ prices, a pack now costs about $600, according to a New York Times article.

“It gives you adrenaline, and it helps your body fight off the reaction that you’re having,” Dubow said. “It’s definitely worth it to have, just in case of emergencies.”

The cost of EpiPen injectors is too high for the UF Student Health Care Center to stock, said Catherine Seemann, the center’s communications coordinator. Nurses can administer epinephrine from a syringe if needed.

“It’s unfortunate,” Seemann said. “It’s a horrible hike in the price.”

At the SHCC, the full price for a two-pack of the injectors is $796.10, she wrote in an email.

In response to criticism of its rising prices, Mylan said in a statement it would take “immediate action” to improve EpiPen access by offering discounts to some patients facing high out-of-pocket fees, and expanding a program eliminates fees for certain patients.

Since she was young, Dubow’s parents have bought her EpiPens every year — they expire. This year, it cost them about $380 for a pack of two, lower than the stock price because of their healthcare coverage but higher than in years past.

Dubow said even though the price for her anti-allergy medication continues to rise, it won’t stop her from keeping it for emergencies. If she ever needed to use an EpiPen, she said, she would probably give the pen to a friend to administer.

“I have a lot of anxiety about it, so I would have someone else do it for me,” she said.

Dubow said the fact that Mylan chose to increase the price of a life-saving drug injector is unfair.

“I think that it’s terrible that the price has increased in the past few years, because it’s a life saving drug,” she said. “It would be tragic if someone needed it and couldn’t afford it.”

Mylan, the pharmaceutical company that distributes EpiPens (pictured), has been significantly raising prices of the lifesaving medication since 2007.