Sympjepi (epinephrine) is launched in .3mg and .15mg pre-filled single dose injections at local pharmacies across the US, after being initially introduced to wholesales earlier this year at a price of $250 (€218) per two-pack.
Mylan’s epinephrine autoinjector, EpiPen, retails at $600 for a pack of two, and its generic and Teva’s have a price tag of $300 for a two-pack.
The drug was originally developed by Adamis but US rights were licensed to Sandoz, a division of Novartis, after Sympjepi received approval by the US Food and Drug Administration in June 2017.
With this launch, wholesaler customers of Sandoz can now stock the product to supply hospitals and clinics with both the adult and pediatric doses of Sympjepi in the US.
Dennis Carlo, president and CEO of Adamis, said that the launch of Sympjepi is expected to play a role in ending the chronic shortages of epinephrine injection products in the US. In 2018, EpiPen shortages occurred after a major epinephrine producer, Pfizer, experienced manufacturing difficulties.
Sandoz aims to use the launch as an initiative to modify existing state legislation to increase the availability of epinephrine in schools and to educate hospital providers and physicians on how to write scripts for epinephrine injection.
A spokesperson for Sandoz told us that this educational aspect of the launch to enable doctors to understand the option to prescribe a pre-filled single dose epinephrine injection instead of an auto-injector.