Food allergy advocates are elated that the New York State Legislature has passed a bill capping the price of a set of epinephrine auto-injectors at $100 per year.
The price cap for auto-injectors “helps ensure families no longer have to decide between paying for the only antidote for anaphylaxis or their food and rent/mortgage,” noted advocate Stacey Saiontz. She is co-chair of the nonprofit FARE’s advocacy committee and the mother of a teenage son with multiple food allergies.
Sung Poblete, PhD, the CEO of FARE, said the state’s 2 million food allergy families “will no longer have to fear if they have enough money to purchase the only medicine that can save their lives.”
The New York Senate bill (S.7114A), sponsored by Senator Gustavo Rivera, passed on May 30. A day later, the Assembly passed (A.6425A), with this bill sponsored by Assemblymember Daniel O’Donnell. The Governor is expected to sign the bill into law, and it would come into effect in January 2026.
“New York is the largest state in the country to pass an epi price cap bill,” says Jason Linde, FARE’s senior vice president of advocacy. He notes that research shows many families cannot currently afford to fill an epinephrine auto-injector prescription.
Jill Mindlin, the other co-chair of the advocacy committee, noted the rise in past years of epinephrine auto-injector costs. “Having used this medication to save my own daughter’s life on multiple occasions, I can’t imagine not being able to afford it.”
Once the epinephrine price cap bill is signed, she told Allergic Living, “this law will help to save lives.”
New York Epi Price Cap’s Team Effort
FARE calls making life-saving epinephrine auto-injectors more affordable “its top legislative priority.” Poblete noted the team effort getting the New York auto-injector bill through the Legislature. In a statement, she applauded the work of lawmakers Rivera, O’Donnell, advocates Saiontz, Mindlin, the nonprofit Allergy Advocates New York, and many individual food allergy families.
Under the New York bill, health insurers must implement a price cap on epinephrine injectors of no more than $100 for a two-pack. And that’s regardless of deductibles or co-pays.
Linde notes that a brand-name EpiPen set ranges in cost from $650 to $730, while the generic costs between $320 and $750. The prices “are too high for most food allergy families to afford, especially when a family must purchase multiple auto-injectors every year,” he said.
Other states have passed epinephrine price cap legislation, too. The states are Illinois, Delaware, Colorado, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. (Read about those here.) Some of these laws have yet to come into effect.
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