{"id":184078,"date":"2017-06-16T10:38:20","date_gmt":"2017-06-16T10:38:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/lower-cost-alternative-to-epipen-okd-by-fda\/"},"modified":"2017-06-16T10:38:20","modified_gmt":"2017-06-16T10:38:20","slug":"lower-cost-alternative-to-epipen-okd-by-fda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/lower-cost-alternative-to-epipen-okd-by-fda\/","title":{"rendered":"Lower-cost alternative to EpiPen OK\u2019d by FDA"},"content":{"rendered":"

TRENTON, N.J. —<\/strong> U.S. regulators have approved new competition for EpiPen, the emergency allergy medicine that made Mylan a poster child for pharmaceutical company greed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved Adamis Pharmaceuticals Corp.’s product, which should go on sale later this year.<\/p>\n

Symjepi is a syringe prefilled with the hormone epinephrine, which helps stop life-threatening allergic reactions from insect stings and bites, foods such as nuts and eggs, or certain medications.<\/p>\n

San Diego-based Adamis says its product is easier to use than Mylan’s EpiPen, a spring-loaded syringe filled with a set dose that comes with a training device.<\/p>\n

Symjepi also is smaller than EpiPen, so it’s easier to fit in a pocket or purse. Most children and adults with severe food or insect allergies carry a device wherever they go and leave a spare at home, school or work.<\/p>\n

Adamis said it is still lining up a distributor so it hasn’t set the exact price for its product, which will be sold in pairs, like EpiPen.<\/p>\n

Adamis spokesman Mark Flather said Symjepi is intended to be a “low-cost alternative” to EpiPen and similar products, and the company is aiming to sell it for less than generic EpiPens.<\/p>\n

In a note to investors, Evercore ISI analyst Umer Raffat wrote that Symjepi is not identical to EpiPen and so the price Adamis sets “will obviously be an important consideration.”<\/p>\n

Currently, EpiPens cost about $630 to $700 without insurance, while the new generic version retails for about $225 to $425<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mylan, which has U.S. headquarters near Pittsburgh, launched generic EpiPens last December in an effort to deflect mounting criticism.<\/p>\n

Last summer, the company came under fire for repeatedly raising the price of EpiPens, and CEO Heather Bresch was grilled by a Congressional panel.<\/p>\n

Mylan hiked the price of a pair of EpiPens from $94 in 2007, when the company acquired the product, to $608 last year. The devices need to be replaced each year, adding to the financial sting.<\/p>\n

Analysts and others have estimated that it costs less than $20 to produce a pair of EpiPens.<\/p>\n

While EpiPen has other rival products, doctors tend to prescribe EpiPen because it’s so well known.<\/p>\n

Just three years ago, EpiPens accounted for nearly 90 percent of both revenue and prescriptions filled in the U.S. for epinephrine injectors and syringes, according to QuintilesIMS, a pharmaceutical analytics company.<\/p>\n

In the first quarter of this year, brand-name EpiPens only drew about 60 percent of epinephrine device prescriptions, while generic EpiPens – mostly Mylan’s – had captured 38 percent of prescriptions.<\/p>\n

Dr. Dennis J. Carlo, CEO of Adamis, said in a statement that his company is preparing to apply for FDA approval of a “junior version” of Symjepi. That would contain a lower epinephrine dose than Symjepi, and would compete with Mylan’s EpiPen Jr.<\/p>\n

Adamis, which specializes in developing medicines for respiratory disease and allergies, saw its shares surge more than 55 percent late Thursday, to $6.05.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TRENTON, N.J. — U.S. regulators have approved new competition for EpiPen, the emergency allergy medicine that made Mylan a poster child for pharmaceutical company greed. The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved Adamis Pharmaceuticals Corp.’s product, which should go on sale later this year. Symjepi is a syringe prefilled with the hormone epinephrine, which Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-184078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184078\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}