According to doctors and patients, the Mylan pharmaceutical company has hiked the rates of an EpiPen, the transportable device capable of stopping a potentially life-threatening allergic reaction, over 400% from nearly $100 in 2008 to $500 and above at present.

Dr. Douglas McMahon, an allergy specialist in Maplewood, Minnesota said that patients have been approaching them saying that they can’t afford it.

Last year, after a recall by Mylan'smain competitor, the company is enjoying a near monopoly.

Doctors said that EpiPen has aggressive marketing and branding campaigns, and lobby for legislation needing them to be stocked in schools due to which they possess a brand dominance equivalent to that of Kleenex.

The fat marker-sized products are carried by many parents of little ones, suffering from severe allergies, everywhere they go, all set to jam the gizmo inside the thigh of their kid to provide epinephrine and halt anaphylactic shock from a likely deadly bee sting or peanut.

The pens carry an expiration date of 365 days due to which parents have to get it refilled every years, inviting an extra co-pay every time.

Tracy Bush, 42, mother and food allergy consultant, avoids moving out of her home without two EpiPens. Her 14-year-old son carries another. She started this practice when her son got diagnosed with severe allergies at the age of 2 years.

For over a decade, she has seen the price she paid for her refills soaring without any discernible enhancement to the device or medicine.

She mentioned that the price was $145.99 in 2008, $220.99 in 2010, and then hiked to $649.99. She has spent $1,118.08 in her pre-insurance costs.

In spite of the continuous increase in price, Bush was happy to have one a couple of years back, when her son suffer a bad reaction while feasting on some watermelon.

A report published in WKYT informed, "The EpiPen is filled with epinephrine, which can counter the effects of a severe allergic reaction. The auto-injector's price has risen by more than 480 percent since 2009. The actual cost of the drug inside the EpiPen is only a couple bucks, reports CBS News correspondent Vinita Nair. So the manufacturer is essentially charging hundreds of dollars for a case -- and a trusted name."

In 2009, pharmacies paid slightly more than $100 for a 2-pack of EpiPens. The price has since skyrocketed to more than $600. "If they don't have [the EpiPen], it could mean life or death," pharmacist Leon Tarasenko said. Tarasenko said the high prices are forcing some families to take risks.

"Within the last two months, we've had about three patients who had issues with the price of an EpiPen. And we actually -- they did not receive it. They just refused to take it," Tarasenko said.

According to a report in NBC News by Ben Popken, "Parents getting ready for back to school season have another item to toss in the basket along with Trapper Keepers and boxes of pencils and they're facing sticker shock at the latest price increase."

Doctors and patients say the Mylan pharmaceutical company has jacked up the prices for an EpiPen — the portable device that can stop a potentially life-threatening allergic reaction — from around $100 in 2008 to $500 and up today.

"Patients are calling and saying they can't afford it," said Dr. Douglas McMahon, an allergy specialist in Maplewood, Minnesota. "They're between a rock and a hard place."