Children and parents alike often count down the days to back-to-school season, anticipating the brief period during which school serves as a welcome reprieve from boredom, and not yet a beguiler of stressful sleep-deprivation. Back-to-school shopping is just as fun, as students eagerly amass shiny new folders, not-yet-graffitied notebooks, and unsharpened, glossy Ticonderoga pencils. For parents buying their child’s yearly school Epipen, however, back-to-school shopping was more appalling than anything else: by this year, the cost of a pack of two EpiPen syringes had risen from about $105 to $610, a more than 500 percent increase from 2009 [1].

The Epipen, an autoinjector that contains doses of epinephrine, is most commonly used as an emergency, often life-saving, treatment for those suffering from anaphylactic shock. In the United States, approximately eight million Americans suffer from allergic reactions severe enough to warrant owning an EpiPen [2]. In fact, because the efficacy of EpiPens decreases drastically after one year, people and parents of those at risk of severe allergic reactions must repurchase EpiPens each year, having to bear the stratospherically rising prices.

The amount of epinephrine contained in each EpiPen only costs around one dollar, and Mylan, the company that produces EpiPens, estimates that packaging and preparation costs about ten dollars per EpiPen—the profit is spent on lobbying, advertising, or extravagant bonuses [3].

Ordinarily, increasing prices presents increased risk for the company, as consumers become less willing to pay higher prices in exchange for the same goods and services. However, because Mylan’s EpiPen has such a dominant stronghold on the market, and because the EpiPen is such a vital product, Mylan reports increasing profits as it hikes its EpiPen prices and people struggle to purchase their yearly supply. Alternatives, which exist few and far between, cost less, but are so obscure that they are rarely prescribed [1].

On one hand, it is necessary for pharmaceutical corporations to garner profits so that they can continue to invest in research and development, allowing for the creation of more efficient and productive drugs. But, on the other hand, increasing prices by 500% and producing product margins of more than 50% cause more harm than good.

By playing capitalism in a market over which it holds a near-complete monopoly, Mylan withholds the EpiPen from people who desperately need it in order to garner exorbitant profits. Bhavik Shah ‘17 adamantly agrees, asserting, “I feel that Mylan’s price hike is egregious and a blatant attempt to capitalize on the public, favoring profits over the product’s intended purpose, which is to save lives.”

Medical afflictions affect people regardless of socioeconomic status, and the fact that Mylan continually inflates the price of the EpiPen, thus making it very difficult for some to afford, elevates the corporation to a whole new level of corporate greed. Kiki Ouyang ’18 believes that “stricter government regulation and reforms of social programs are required to moderate the rising prices of many drugs, including that of EpiPen…The government needs to stop worrying about its political capital and start worrying about the welfare of its constituents.”

There should be some form of government regulation to dismantle the monopoly and price inflation of corporations that sell vital goods and services. Families who need to buy EpiPens each year can’t find alternatives as effortlessly as people can switch data plans, downgrade to smaller houses, or buy used cars. Without governmental interference, pharmaceutical companies such as Mylan can too easily eschew helping as many people as possible for self-interest.

An EpiPen isn’t the newest iPhone or a flashy car; it isn’t a luxury item that’s targeted solely to the wealthy. Rather, for about eight million Americans, it’s a necessity, and the government needs to treat it as such.

[1] http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2016/10/nj_takes_stand_as_epipen_costs_soar_500-percent_ed.html
[2] https://www.epipen.com/what-is-anaphylaxis/what-causes-anaphylaxis/food-allergies
[3] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-23/how-marketing-turned-the-epipen-into-a-billion-dollar-business