Drug lobby helps EpiPen set sky-high price

My daughter needed to have an EpiPen in order to get her first allergy shot. The price of an EpiPen here in the U.S. starts at $500.

They used to cost $50 to $100 just about 10 ago years ago. Now, the CEO of the company Mylan, which produces the EpiPen, Heather Bresch, had a salary of over $2 million, but obviously could not live on that, so why not up the price of the EpiPen and then she can collect a salary of over $18 million?

The other executives of the company saw hikes of 11 to 13 percent in their salaries. And of course, the shareholders could share in that price gouging, too, with stocks shooting from $13 to almost $50 dollars.

Never mind that children with allergies all over the U.S. have need of that pen lest they go into anaphylactic shock and even possibly die.

And it needs to be noted that the "do nothing Congress" passed a law in 2013 to block grants to states that required they be stocked in public schools.

There seems to be a federal law that airlines must stock epinephrine on planes, but never a federal law passed for public schools.

Many states have a law that EpiPens be stocked at their schools, but I am not sure that all states have that law. Although I am a "buy American" person, I am starting to tell my friends to buy their pharmaceuticals from Canada.

Our drug lobbying group is simply too powerful, and many of the people who need the drugs the most simply cannot afford the astronomical price of our drugs here in the U.S.

As Rusty Eric said, "As long as greed is stronger than compassion, there will always be suffering."

Susan Merle Hoerauf

Prospect Heights