EpiPens in UK sold for 10% of US prices
30 Sep 2016
The list price of Mylan's EpiPen two-pack had shot up to $608, up over 500 per cent in the US over the last decade. The cost of the same pack in the UK, is roughly $69. (See: Mylan raises prices of allergy medication EpiPens 500%)
According to Mylan, that was what it paid a manufacturer to make two pens in the US.
Prices of drugs tend to be the highest in the US due to a number of reasons, according to commentators.
In the UK, the $69 per two-pack of the device, used in emergencies to treat severe allergic reaction, was paid by the National Health Service, a publicly funded health system, while in the US, there were both public and private insurers.
The UK also had a more competitive EpiPen market - two other auto-injector pens were in the market that had not been approved in the US, Bloomberg reported. In the US, competition had not done enough to push down the cost of the EpiPen, as it still made up the vast majority of prescriptions.
Also Mylan CEO Heather Bresch had pointed out in her Congressional testimony that families in need of the EpiPen were not charged the full $608 price.
Mylan NV, said it took home about $274, in the UK a similar pair of injectors cost the state-funded National Health Service £53. The numbers highlighted the drug pricing differentials between the US and the UK, where the government negotiated with pharmaceutical companies to limit costs.
''It's really two extremes,'' said Soeren Niegel, executive vice president of commercial operations at Danish drugmaker Alk-Abello A/S, whose Jext pen is sold in Europe but not the U.S. ''The truth, I think, should be somewhere in the middle. In the US, there's a fair point from consumers and legislators saying this is crazy.''
