As the list price of a pair of EpiPen devices soared to more than $600 this summer, people scurried to find alternatives, occasionally throwing caution to the wind. Some bought cheap syringes filled with epinephrine, the medication in EpiPens; others made homemade auto-injectors, following the steps in a popular YouTube video.

Few people, though, have turned to the one true alternative — known by the brand name Adrenaclick.

The Adrenaclick auto-injector checks all the necessary boxes: The government declared it safe, national pharmacies sell it and its list price is a third less than the EpiPen’s. But selling a drug takes far more than that.

The story of Adrenaclick is paved with blunders and missed chances, leaving it a largely unknown bit player with a single-digit share of the market. Six companies in succession have owned Adrenaclick since an earlier version became available 13 years ago, but few invested significant money in marketing. It has been sold under multiple names, and at one point it was taken off the market for more than a year. Recently, its owner, Impax Laboratories, has struggled to keep up with scant demand, resulting in sporadic shortages.

During the same period, Mylan, the maker of EpiPens and the target of the public’s furor over the price increases, has done almost exactly the opposite — turning what was once considered a throwaway product into a prodigious moneymaker through branding and shrewd market expansion.