Finally, some good news.
This year has been filled with bad news in the health care industry. Insurance premiums are going up. Families can’t find providers or specialists under their plans. The price of medicine is going up, up….up.
According to an news release in CNBC, Popular Science just had an article about a researcher in North Southeastern university in Florida that is investigating creating a pill to treat anaphylaxis. Right now when you have a potential deadly allergic response to a food or an insect bite, you have to take an Epipen. You might remember that the maker of the Epipen, Mylan, was in the news this year for elevating the price of this device by 500%. A lot of families can’t afford to pay this amount. There are 43 million people that should have this life-saving device and many of them no longer have access to it.
There is lots of good news about the pill. It will be dissolvable so you won’t have to swallow the pill (or inject it). It’s hard to get that wrong! On the other hand, many people do not give the Epipen correctly and some have even held the device upside down and injected themselves instead of their loved ones. The pill is supposed to have a longer shelf live, possibly up to 7 years. The Epipen lasts only a year. Lastly, they are promising a lower price!
The bad news is that they have not started clinical trials yet. An trials can take longer than any of us would like. But at least there is hope on the horizon!
Dr.Badaracco
