Many of us have allergies that come with scratchy throats, runny noses and itchy eyes. For those unlucky enough to be born with or develop a severe allergic reaction to something — nuts, bee stings, etc. — they come with a mandate: Get yourself an EpiPen. It may save your life.

That means the devices find a home in the pockets of millions of people. It’s on back-to-school shopping lists; in the offices of school nurses; in the hip pocket of your grandmother or grandfather when they hop on their riding mower or venture out into the garden each day.

The device hasn’t suddenly become more expensive to manufacture. The medication itself, epinephrine, costs less than a dollar per milliliter and each EpiPen holds less than a third of a milliliter of the drug.

The technology isn’t even new or improved. Why would it need to be? The devices have been saving lives for decades. EpiPens have been in use since 1977.

The only thing that’s changed in that time is the price and the company that owns the rights to make and sell EpiPens.

When Mylan bought the device from Merck KGaA in 2007, an EpiPen cost $57. Since then the company has raised the price frequently — sometimes as often as three times a year for the past nine years. That — along with a lack of competition and the fact that the devices need to be replaced annually — has made Mylan very rich.

In 2015, the company sold 3.6 million Epipens and made more than $1 billion. Apparently it wasn’t enough. In May, after yet another price hike, a two-pack of EpiPens cost $608.

Of course, many patients don’t see much, if any, of that cost upfront. The company uses America’s broken and often-inscrutable health insurance system to insulate them from the price gouging. In response to criticism of the price hike, Mylan said this week that “nearly 80 percent” of insured patients who used a copay coupon last year got their EpiPens for nothing.

Unfortunately, it’s not really “$0” when insurance companies are still getting stuck with the bill, which they then pass along to policy holders via higher premium costs or larger copays.

The short-term fear is that the devices are being priced out-of-reach of school children getting ready to start a new school year.

The long-term problem is more systemic: drug pricing in general is a black box for consumers. With notable exceptions — “pharmaceutical bro” Martin Shkreli’s shameless money grab using a 62-year-old pill for parasitic infection; and now Mylan’s latest price hike — patients don’t get answers, or data, showing them why drugs cost what they do.

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, is demanding that Mylan explain its price hikes. Maybe it’s time for the explanations to include more than just the one company that has managed to offend our collective sensibilities.