这封信的作者是Yorktown High School in Yorktown Heights, N.Y 17 岁的Vaishnavi Ravindranath，她是学生公开信大赛的前 10 名获胜者之一，我们收到了 9,946 份参赛作品。
Dear Viatris,
I live with a life-threatening allergy, like many of your customers. Like millions of people, I carry an EpiPen everywhere I go. I don’t have the luxury of forgetting it. A mislabeled snack or a bite of the wrong sandwich and suddenly, I’m in a race against time.
In those moments, there’s only one thing between me and an ambulance ride, or worse: epinephrine, delivered quickly and accurately. The EpiPen was designed to do just that — make it possible for anyone, even in a panic, to self-administer a lifesaving dose in seconds. The concept is simple, the delivery intuitive, and the science behind it decades old.
So I have to ask: how did something so essential, so established, become so unaffordable?
Epinephrine has been around for more than a century. It costs less than a dollar per dose to produce. But because of your company, the cost of two EpiPens soared to over $600 in recent years. That figure is staggering, especially when you consider that in 2007, a similar pack cost around $57.
What changed? Not the product. Not the manufacturing process. Not the drug itself. What changed was your control of the market.
You acquired the product, then strategically capitalized on its necessity. You stopped selling single pens and began marketing only twin-packs — often required in schools and workplaces. And each time the dependence grew, so did the price.
This price inflation was not the result of innovation, but rather an example of systemic dysfunction. Epinephrine degrades quickly, so EpiPens must be replaced every 12 to 18 months. Many families are forced to buy multiple sets to keep in backpacks, lockers, and grandparents’ homes. Every pen expires. Every replacement costs hundreds of dollars. Often, families are forced to take a chance that something bad will not happen.
It’s like dangling a sword in front of a soldier mid-battle and then asking them to choose between death and the sword — except the sword comes with consequences. You don’t just capitalize on need — you capitalize on desperation.
Alternatives have struggled to gain traction. Whether due to F.D.A. delays or lack of insurance coverage, competitors have not meaningfully disrupted your hold on the market. Your own “generic” version, introduced amid backlash, still sells for hundreds of dollars.
You may argue that this is simply how the system works, but that argument rings hollow when people are left choosing between paying rent or affording a medication that could save their life. Epinephrine is not optional. It is not a luxury. And yet, you’ve priced it as though it were.
What’s most frustrating is that this isn’t just about one drug, or one device. It’s about the dangerous precedent that it sets — that even emergency medicine can be commodified. Even when lives are on the line, profit comes first.
I’m writing this not because I expect a sudden price correction. I’m writing this because currently, your main customer is fear, and I hope that can change.
Sincerely,
One girl out of 3.6 million
Works Cited
Carroll, Aaron E. “The EpiPen, a Case Study in Health System Dysfunction.” The New York Times, 23 Aug. 2016.
Edwards, Erika, et al. “More Families Facing Price Shocks for Lifesaving Children’s Medications.” NBC News, 7 Jan. 2023.
“EPIPEN® (Epinephrine Injection, USP) Auto-Injectors| Savings Card.” EpiPen.com, 2020.
“EpiPen Priced More than $600, While Experts Argue Its Medicinal Value at $1.” WTVM, 24 Aug. 2016.