[toomuchtodo]

Scarcity demands innovation. I don't think its being taken lightly; more like, "a private company is gouging medical users and the government won't step in". Not left with many options when your life depends on it.

EDIT: Alternatively, a "better" temporary solution would be to arrange for the import of these from Canada, where the price is fixed by the government.

[bobdole1234]

Not so much fixed as "Canada doesn't insist that everyone make separate deals so everyone can get fucked harder".

It turns out when you have millions of people dealing together as a block, they have much more bargaining power.

[refurb]

That's not why Canada gets better prices. United Healthcare has 42M members which is bigger than the entire population of Canada.

[dlitz]

Yes, apparently Canada has something called the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board:

http://pmprb-cepmb.gc.ca/about-us/frequently-asked-questions

[dredmorbius]

It's not merely size. It's size-relative-to-market.

Canada negotiates with drugs suppliers. Supplier says "take a hike". Canada says, "OK, you're out of the market", turns to next drug supplier.

Canada here has right-of-refusal, and can negotiate, as a single block entity, with ability to restrict market, to each. The drugs company which finds those terms acceptable has a market.

A bloc of 42 million in the US is only about 12% of the total market. The discussion there still leaves another 290M possible customers for a drugs vendor. Hence the strength is with the vendors.

If US Medicare had rights to exclusively negotiate drugs deals (it doesn't), this would change tremendously. Similarly for single payor.

Which is precisely why the entire medical services industry is so mortally opposed to it. They'd lose absolutely all market leverage. They know this.

[toomuchtodo]

I agree. My hack is safer than 3D printing medical devices, as its simply a geographical arbitrage.

Thank you Canada.

[infinite8s]

Well the cheaper and more effective solution would be to carry around a syringe and a small bottle of epinephrine.

[imglorp]

The autoinjector provides value for people that don't do IM administration every day. It's rugged, sterile, can be used right through clothing if necessary, and provides the right amount of force to go through to the muscle. The kit might also include a practice injector for training the user.

Oh and it's probably a little hard to handle a bottle and syringe on yourself while you're suffocating.

[vonmoltke]

That's an alternative, but is more complicated and the vials of epinephrine only have a shelf life of three months vice twelve to eighteen for the EpiPens.

[icantdrive55]

That makes too much sence for the FDA, AMA lobby, big pharma, and very entity/persons that makes a killing off health care.

As to the simplicity the EpiPen, I once used it, and under stress didn't do it right.

When I was younger I was very interested in medicine. In college finished all pre-med courses. Interned at a Coroner's office, etc. Even spent some time in med school. Very familiar with giving a subdermal injection.

Now my father had a bad asthma attack years ago. I knew he was in poor health, so my stress level was high. He blurted out where the EpiPen was kept. I got the device, didn't have time to read the instructions, and just stuck it in his thigh. I apparently pulled it out too quick--just wasn't thinking, and nervous. I pulled it out so quick, because I was scared, felt the device was foolproof, and felt weird hurting my father. We luckey had enother one around, and injected him longer this time. If I was forced to use a syringe, their would be no assuming. "I need to get the drug into the syring. I then need to empty the syring into his thigh. Done?"

Well it didn't work, and he ended up in the emergency room. He survived.

I drove home feeling guilty, and still do today.

I always felt a kit with a single dosed bottles of epinephrine, and a syringe would make intuitive sence to a lot of people? I know I would have felt more comfortable that night.

I honestly think the powers at be underestimate the abilities of the average person, especially a person who's had an previous asthma attack. If a doctor/nurse spent a minute showing a patient how to injection themselfs with epinephrine; I don't think most would ever forget. Plus--we have all watched injections given on the boob tube? "But the average person would probally jab the syringe in the Carotid artery, or pull a Pulp fiction." They could jam it into a carotid, even with a EpiPen--with enough effort/stupidity?

I hope in the future we have over the counter life saving medications over the counter, including naloxone.

Demand passing a basic test if worried about consumers hurting themselfs? Something like a CPR certification? If the patient can pass, they can buy cheap medications over the counter? They don't need fancy propriatiatry drug delivery gadgets in so many cases.

I really think the only way to bring down medicine costs will be to make many drugs OTC, and demand basic competency exams if worried about ineptitude? There will always be people out there that will find a way to abuse/overdose/screw up dosesages on medication. Let's just try it for a year? Especially with certain life saving drugs. How many diabetics die each year because they don't have a prescription for insulin, and couldn't get to a hospital?

I used to have so much respect for any sector of the health care; now I look at most of them with utter discontent.

[maxerickson]

It's recommended to seek medical attention immediately after using any epinephrine injection.

There's a pretty fair chance that you driving your living father home from the emergency room is evidence of the injection working.

[niels_olson]

Surely design files can be signed...

[greenknight]

Sure... but then there is the problem of the end user.

Is there 3D printer correctly calibrated? will miscalibration effect its end use? how can you test to make sure the printed design is working as intended?

Can the printed plastic withstand direct sunlight for days on end? Some printed plastics become brittle over time in sunlight (PLA for instance).

[rangibaby]

When the difference is $1 vs $600, I think a lot of people would be willing to take that risk, especially for something that is basically an unexpected expense; I doubt any allergic people are getting stung by bees on purpose.

Most people I know couldn't handle a sudden $600 expense like a car repair without help from someone like their parents (I'm mid-20s living in JP).

[cjbprime]

> When the difference is $1 vs $600, I think a lot of people would be willing to take that risk, especially for something that is basically an unexpected expense; I doubt any allergic people are getting stung by bees on purpose.

What probabilities are you assigning to needing the printed epipen to survive, and to it functioning correctly, such that it's worth that risk?

[rangibaby]

I get where you're coming from. I guess my point was that to most people $600 might as well be $6,000 or $6,000,000, since that's not something they can afford on their own. At that point, the dollar version is (hopefully) better than nothing.