WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. health officials have approved a new generic version of EpiPen, the emergency allergy medication. 
 
 The Food and Drug Administration's action Thursday opens the door to more competition for a drug that has faced public outrage over its price tag. The injections are stocked by schools and parents to treat allergic reactions to food and bug bites. 
 
 The new generic version will be sold by Teva Pharmaceuticals. 
 
 EpiPen maker Mylan has dominated the $1 billion market for two decades. Competing shots are not widely marketed or prescribed by doctors. 
 
 In 2016, Congress blasted Mylan for raising the price to $600, a five-fold increase over nearly a decade. The company responded by launching its own lower-cost generic version for $300. ||||| (CNN) The US Food and Drug Administration has approved the first generic competitor to EpiPen and EpiPen Jr. for the emergency treatment of allergic reactions in adults and children. 
 
 The company Teva Pharmaceuticals gained approval to market the new generic drug, according to an announcement from the FDA on Thursday. 
 
 Brendan O'Grady, executive vice president who heads North America Commercial at Teva, noted in an emailed statement Thursday that the approval "marks an important step forward in bringing our patients additional prescription medications that have met the FDA's rigorous standards." 
 
 "We're applying our full resources to this important launch in the coming months and eager to begin supplying the market," the statement said. 
 
 No details are available regarding the cost of the new generic or precisely when it will be available. 
 
 'A lower-cost option' 
 
 The newly approved generic offers an alternative for patients who, until now, have been able to use only the brand-name EpiPen. 
 
 "Today's approval of the first generic version of the most-widely prescribed epinephrine auto-injector in the U.S. is part of our longstanding commitment to advance access to lower cost, safe and effective generic alternatives once patents and other exclusivities no longer prevent approval," FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb said in the announcement. 
 
 "This approval means patients living with severe allergies who require constant access to life-saving epinephrine should have a lower-cost option, as well as another approved product to help protect against potential drug shortages," he said. 
 
 EpiPen is an auto-injector that delivers epinephrine , more commonly known as adrenaline, a hormone that can help relax muscles in the airways and tighten blood vessels. It can open the airways and reduce swelling during a severe allergic reaction. 
 
 Epinephrine injection is used along with emergency medical treatment for life-threatening reactions caused by allergies to insect bites or stings, foods, medications, latex or other causes. 
 
 Yet "the path to developing generic drug-device combination products like this one is challenging," Gottlieb said, because combination drugs consist of two parts: the drug, such as epinephrine, and the device, such as the auto-injector. 
 
 JUST WATCHED Senators fight EpiPen price hike Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Senators fight EpiPen price hike 01:17 
 
 "We remain committed to doing our part to provide scientific and regulatory clarity for sponsors seeking to develop complex generics, as well as prioritize the approval of medicines with little or no generic competition," Gottlieb said. 
 
 This effort is part of the administration's overarching aim to "remove barriers to generic development," as outlined in its Drug Competition Action Plan , announced last year. 
 
 "We're especially committed to the development of generic copies of complex products," Gottlieb said. "These products can be hard to copy, and therefore sometimes don't face timely generic competition once patents and exclusivities are no longer a block to approval." 
 
 He added that "we're advancing new guidance for sponsors to make the development of generic versions of complex products more efficient, and we're prioritizing review of many complex generic drug applications." 
 
 What this means for back-to-school planning 
 
 Before the new generic, the only other FDA-approved alternatives to EpiPen were the brand products Auvi-Q and Adrenaclick . The newly approved option made by Teva is the only approved non-brand option. 
 
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 "Any measures that can improve the availability and costs of these medications is a real benefit for our patients," Wood said. 
 
 "There have been recent concerns about shortages of EpiPens, which has been especially an issue as families are refilling prescriptions for back-to-school planning," he said. "We strongly support any measures than can help provide these lifesaving medications in a more cost-effective manner, especially given the concerns about the shortages of EpiPens." ||||| U.S. regulators cleared the first generic competitor to Mylan's EpiPen, after a yearslong delay that many said contributed to the emergency allergy drug's rapid rise in price. 
 
 Teva Pharmaceuticals received Food and Drug Administration approval for generic versions of both the EpiPen and EpiPen Jr, the agency said in a statement Thursday. 
 
 The products are the first competitors cleared by the FDA that are direct generic copies of the EpiPen and could be substituted for the brand-name product by a pharmacist. Other versions of epinephrine auto-injectors, such as the Adrenaclick and Auvi-Q, are on the market, but aren't considered EpiPen generics. 
 
 Teva shares rose nearly 6 percent on the news. 
 
 "This approval means patients living with severe allergies who require constant access to life-saving epinephrine should have a lower-cost option, as well as another approved product to help protect against potential drug shortages," FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in the statement. 
 
 It may be an especially welcome time for a new entrant into the market, as the EpiPen has been facing supply issues, according to Mylan and Pfizer, which makes the EpiPen in a partnership with Mylan. 
 
 "We're applying our full resources to this important launch in the coming months and eager to being supplying the market," Teva said in a statement. The company didn't provide any details about specific timing or the planned price. 
 
 Mylan introduced its own authorized generic form of the EpiPen in late 2016, after an uproar about the branded version's price, which rose more than 400 percent over a decade. The authorized generic, identical to the original except without the brand name, cost half the price: $300 for a two-pack. 
 
 Mylan wasn't immediately available to comment on the FDA's decision. 
 
 Teva could seek to compete by pricing its generic version even lower; typically, it takes multiple generic copies of a medicine entering the market to see prices collapse substantially. 
 
 The Israeli company's application for a generic EpiPen was rejected by the FDA in early 2016, not long before the rising price of Mylan's product exploded into a major news story heading into back-to-school season, when parents often stock up for kids with allergies. 
 
 Though the key ingredient in the EpiPen, epinephrine, has been available for decades and is no longer covered by a patent, generic copies of the device have struggled to reach the market because the product is technically a drug-device combination, and the delivery device proved hard for generic competitors to copy to a degree that would satisfy regulators. 
 
 The FDA issued guidance in November 2017 to try to make it easier for generic copies of complex medicines like the EpiPen to reach the market, saying some design differences may be approved as substitutable products, as long as those differences don't affect patients' ability to use the product the way it's intended. 
 
 The FDA said Teva's generic products are expected to produce the same clinical effect and have the same safety profile as the EpiPen and EpiPen Jr. There are small differences in design, the regulator said, but they won't affect safety or efficacy.
– Parents of children with serious allergies may soon get some relief when shelling out for a epinephrine auto-injector. The FDA has approved a generic alternative to Mylan Pharmaceuticals' widely used EpiPen and EpiPen Jr., reports CNN. While other name-brand injectors exist, this one, produced by Teva, is the first approved non-brand option. "This approval means patients living with severe allergies who require constant access to life-saving epinephrine should have a lower-cost option," FDA chief Scott Gottlieb, "as well as another approved product to help protect against potential drug shortages." As the AP notes, Mylan caught serious heat in 2016 when it jacked up the price of a two-pack to $600, or five times what it cost 10 years before. Israel-based Teva says it plans to launch the product as soon as possible, though it provided no specifics about a date or a possible price. Mylan has its own generic version of the device on the market for $300 per two-pack, and CNBC says the price probably won't drop substantially below that until multiple approved generics hit the market. (Mylan's CEO had to fend off comparisons to Martin Shkreli.)