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EpiPen is going to have some competition

Mylan NL CEO Heather Bresch holds EpiPens during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on the Rising Price of EpiPens at the Capitol in Washington, U.S., September 21, 2016. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas
Mylan NL CEO Heather Bresch holds EpiPens during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on the Rising Price of EpiPens at the Capitol in Washington, U.S., September 21, 2016. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas

(Mylan NL CEO Heather Bresch holds EpiPens during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on the Rising Price of EpiPens at the Capitol in WashingtonThomson Reuters)

Privately held drugmaker Kaleo announced on Wednesday plans for a U.S. relaunch of its Auvi-Q injector for life-threatening allergic reactions in the first half of next year.

Auvi-Q, designed to deliver the same epinephrine drug as Mylan's EpiPen, was recalled from the market in October 2015 amid concerns about accuracy of the dosage delivered.

At that point, French pharmaceutical company Sanofi had licensed and made Auvi-Q, but in February it returned the product's rights to Kaleo.

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Mylan has come under fire from lawmakers and consumer groups for raising the list price for a pair of EpiPens to more than $600 this year from $100 in 2007 when Mylan acquired the product.

Mylan said last month it plans to launch, at a list price of $300, its own generic EpiPen by the end of this year.

Officials at Kaleo declined to comment on a planned list price for the relaunched Auvi-Q.

auvi q
auvi q

(What the Auvi-Q looked like before it was recalled.Screenshot/Auvi-Q)

"We are working on what is the right price to assure that the ultimate patient co-pay is low," Kaleo Chief Executive Officer Spencer Williamson told Reuters in a telephone interview. By the time Auvi-Q was recalled, the Auvi-Q's was about about $500, in line with how much the EpiPen cost then.

Unlike the pen-shaped EpiPen, Auvi-Q, which includes a voice prompt system to guide users, is the length and width of a credit card with the thickness of a small cellphone.

The Kaleo device also has a needle that automatically retracts after the device has been used.

Williamson said Auvi-Q will be manufactured at an automated robotic production line located in the Midwestern United States.

When Auvi-Q entered the market in 2012, it managed to pick up some of the market from the EpiPen. Here's how all of EpiPen's epinephrine injection competitors (Auvi-Q and a few other devices) stack up in number of prescriptions to the branded product.

epipen vs competitors prescriptions title
epipen vs competitors prescriptions title

(Andy Kiersz/Business Insider)

Kaleo also sells Evzio, a hand-held device designed to automatically deliver a set dose of naloxone, a drug approved to treat an overdose of opioid painkillers.

Evzio has a current list price of $3,750 for two active devices and one training device.

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