The invention of the EpiPen
In the 1970s, engineer Sheldon Kaplan and his colleagues invented an auto-injector pen which came to be known as the EpiPen - the lifesaving, allergy device.
In the 1970s, engineer Sheldon Kaplan and his colleagues were tasked with creating an auto-injector pen to be used by US soldiers needing a nerve agent antidote.
The Pentagon called it the ComboPen but, in 1987, it was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as the EpiPen, for patients with allergies.
The device is carried by millions of people all over the world as it can quickly and easily deliver a shot of adrenaline to anyone at risk of death from anaphylactic shock.
Sheldon Kaplan died in 2009 and was inducted into the US National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2016.
Sheldon鈥檚 son Michael Kaplan and colleague Michael Mesa tell Vicky Farncombe the story behind the pen.
Last on
More episodes
Broadcasts
- Mon 13 Nov 2023 08:50GMT大象传媒 World Service
- Mon 13 Nov 2023 12:50GMT大象传媒 World Service
- Mon 13 Nov 2023 18:50GMT大象传媒 World Service except East and Southern Africa, News Internet & West and Central Africa
- Mon 13 Nov 2023 23:50GMT大象传媒 World Service East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa only
- Tue 14 Nov 2023 03:50GMT大象传媒 World Service except East and Southern Africa, East Asia, South Asia & West and Central Africa
Featured in...
![]()
Health and wellbeing—Witness History
From fitness to friendship - ideas that changed the way we treat our bodies and minds
![]()
Inventions—Witness History
How groundbreaking ideas were brought to life
Podcast
-
![]()
Witness History
History as told by the people who were there
