EpiPen maker Mylan (MYL) is about to get a lot more competition for its life-saving device.
CVS (CVS) is now selling an authorized generic version of Adrenaclick, a lesser-known epinephrine delivery product from Impax Laboratories (IPXL), for just $109.99 per two-pack (and that’s before potential discounts and rebates through Impax’s patient assistance programs).
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Mylan drew major flak last year after news broke that it had steadily increased the list price for an EpiPen two-pack from about $100 to more than $600 in less than a decade. CEO Heather Bresch has since been hauled into Congressional hearings and Mylan is facing investigations into its contracting services. The PR fiasco forced the company to buttress its own patient assistance and rebate programs for the EpiPen and to introduce an authorized generic version of the device at half the price.
But the Adrenaclick generic that is now available at some 9,600 retail CVS pharmacies is still a third of new the generic EpiPen’s price.
This is the kind of competition that led one analyst, Bernstein’s Ronny Gal, to predict that Mylan will lose out on some $800 million in EpiPen sales through 2018. The flagship product will net Mylan just $300 million in sales next year compared to $1.1 billion in 2016, Gal predicts.
Another EpiPen alternative, Kaleo’s Auvi-Q, is set to make a return to the U.S. market within the next six months.
And this isn’t the only unfortunate EpiPen-related news Mylan got this month. Insurance giant Cigna (CI) has decided to drop coverage for the product in favor of Impax’s Adrenaclick.
Bresch has said that Mylan will try to get the EpiPen a special status that would allow restaurants and other public venues to keep them available onsite as one way of expanding sales. The product still controls more than 90% of the epinephrine market.
