Novartis amps up Symjepi launch to fill Pfizers EpiPen supply gap

Mylan and its EpiPen manufacturing partner Pfizer have had trouble keeping up with demand. That's not good news as the key back-to-school season nears. Except, perhaps, for Novartis' Sandoz unit and its stepped-up rollout of rival epinephrine injector Symjepi. Amid a long-running EpiPen shortage, Sandoz and its partner Adamis are kicking off a broad retail launch for Symjepi. Sandoz is making adult and pediatric doses of Symjepi available immediately at pharmacies, the drugmaker said Tuesday. Sandoz already launched the med in hospitals and has a sales force detailing it to hospital providers. To bring patients into pharmacies, Sandoz has rolled out a social media program and a new website, Adamis said. It's also hoping to push into schools, which are required in many states to stock epinephrine injectors in case students suffer severe reactions. But that's a tougher task. To make a big dent in that market, Sandoz and Adamis need some state lawmakers to tweak their regulations and change the definition of “auto-injectors.” Symjepi is a syringe, and current rules in some states force them to pay for the pricey EpiPen. “Along with Sandoz, Adamis is thrilled to bring broad access to this critical medicine for patients,” Adamis CEO Dennis Carlo said in a statement. “We expect that Symjepi will play a role in ending the chronic shortages of epinephrine injection products in the U.S.”