OLD FORGE -- There is now nationwide outrage over the skyrocketing price of a drug used to treat allergic reactions.
The cost for a double pack of EpiPen auto-injectors is now $600 but now the company making it is responding to the outcry.
The manufacturer says it’s taking immediate action to reduce the cost but for one man in Lackawanna County, those changes didn’t come soon enough.
“I thought I was 75 percent dead because I could no longer breathe, I was shaking uncontrollably,” said Frank Scavo of Old Forge.
Scavo described one of the most terrifying nights of his life, when he was rushed by ambulance to the emergency room, following a severe allergic reaction.
“My face had blown up, it was the size of a football, I could no longer breath through my nose, my sinuses and my throat was beginning to close.”
Scavo says he`s never had any major allergy concerns until a similar episode in February.
His doctor told him about the EpiPen auto-injector, a device carrying the drug epinephrine that works as a muscle relaxer during an allergic reaction.
Scavo got a prescription but when he went to get the medicine, he got a big shock.
“They said it`s $600 upon which I said forget it, I can`t afford it!” said Scavo. “And the pharmacist said, listen many people do cancel because the cost is very expensive for the average working man.”
Scavo, and millions of others across the nation, are expressing outrage at EpiPen`s manufacturer, Mylan over what they feel is price gouging.
“If I had the EpiPen it would probably have relieved it (the allergic reaction) long before I got to this point of having to take a $500 ambulance ride and a $5000 emergency room visit,” said Scavo.
Now caught up in national firestorm, Mylan say it`s making immediate changes to EpiPen distribution.
It says it will offer patients savings cards that will cut the cost in half, to $300.
Scavo, who has now bought the EpiPen, feels more needs to be done.
“Who`s looking out for the working man? Where`s the FDA, where`s the Consumer Protection Agency on these issues because this {drug} at $600? Who`s going to buy it?”
Thursday, U.S. Senator Bob Casey issued a statement on Mylan also saying what the company is doing is not enough.
Casey said "These are lifesaving drugs that families need....Increasing the cost of EpiPen by 488 percent since 2009 made it more difficult for middle class families to access these devices and puts lives at risk."
