[slowmovintarget]

I have no evidence, but this headline coupled with the insulin price hike... it really feels like this is an attempt to manufacture a crisis.

I fill a prescription for epi-pens once a year (nut allergies), but insurance bears the brunt of the cost.

[gwright]

Insurance simply distributes the high cost to many people via higher premiums. Without competition to reduce the cost or regulations that set the price by law, the high cost remains.

[ancap]

>or regulations that set the price by law, the high cost remains

It is important to note that even such a law does not magically remove the high cost. Certain products have a high price for a reason and setting the price by fiat is guaranteed to cause shortages. That's when people really start dying. See Venezuela for a prime current example.

[gwright]

This is a very important point! If the fiat price is below the market price, then you are correct, shortages (or simply no product at all) are the result. If it is above the market price then the surplus is captured by the seller rather than retained by the buyer.

[JshWright]

There is no supply side reason for the high price Mylan is charging for EpiPens. It is a couple bucks worth of materials (plus QA, distribution, and all that). The R&D costs have long since been amortized away to nothing.

[ancap]

How do you know? The medical industry regularly has shortages of dozens of different products [1]. And that is to say nothing of the cost of navigating through all the regulatory hurdles.

[1] http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2015/10/drug-shortages-...

[JshWright]

The price of epinephrine in other packaging (vials, ampules, etc) has remained more or less unchanged (speaking from firsthand experience as someone who orders supplies for an ambulance service). It is not an epinephrine shortage driving this price increase.

Similarly, the EpiPen is already an FDA approved product, and has had no new regulatory hurdles to jump through recently.