Last summer, I went into anaphylactic shock after being stung by a wasp. When I had recovered, my GP said I should carry an adrenaline auto-injector pen with me and we chose the Emerade brand rather than Epipen because, in addition to having a higher and more realistic dosage (500μg) it had a 30-month shelf life compared with only 18 months for Epipen.
However, the best my local pharmacist could supply was an Emerade pen with a 13-month shelf life. Even now, almost six months later, the pharmacist has been unable to obtain an Emerade pen that has a longer shelf life. I have exchanged emails with Bausch and Lomb, the manufacturers of Emerade, but they just make a big song and dance about how superior in terms of shelf life their product is over Epipen. It appears to be nothing more than noise.
I would have expected an ethical company to do better than this.
Ivan Stockley
Loughborough,
Leicestershire
Bausch and Lomb declined to comment on the allegations made in this letter – Editor
