Unfortunately, when a child has a severe, potentially life-threatening version of the allergy, who wants to take a chance on an alternative bought off the ‘net?
Nothing magic about eppipen. Epinephrine is Epinephrine, and was available OTC up till this Senator got the law passed to help his spawn’s corporate profits.
There is also the issue that the EpiPen does seem to be as close to ‘idiot proof’ as can be achieved - I’m not sure if the alternatives are. They may be - I’ve only ever seen the epiPens.
I’m a teacher who has had to administer these twice when students have started having severe allergic reactions (well, in one case, it was definitely a real reaction - in the other, I’m not 100% sure if it was a real reaction or a panicking kid but decided not to take the chance). When seconds count and it’s amateurs like me doing it, you want it to be simple.