Richmond-based pharmaceutical company Kaléo is launching its first product outside of the United States.

The company’s Allerject epinephrine auto-injector, used to treat serious allergic reactions, will be available in pharmacies across Canada beginning May 19, the company announced Tuesday.

The same product is marketed in the U.S. as Auvi-Q, which was the company’s first product.

Allerject will join EpiPen as the other epinephrine product on the market in Canada.

“Over the last two years, we have been strongly advocating to have a minimum of two suppliers of epinephrine auto-injectors available for the over 2 million Canadians impacted by food allergy,” said Jennifer Gerdts, executive director of Food Allergy Canada.

“Everyone should always be able to access life-saving medication. With the availability of ALLERJECT, Canadian families now have a different option for an epinephrine auto-injector, providing them with choice that comes from no longer being vulnerable in a single-source market. It’s a significant step for the food allergy community.”

Allerject and Auvi-Q have voice-activated prompts that guide patients or their caretakers on how to use the device to deliver the medicine. It is also compact in size.

Allerject contains dosages of 0.15 milligram of epinephrine for treating children 33 to 66 pounds and 0.3 milligram of epinephrine for treating those weighing 66 pounds and over.

As many as 2.6 million Canadians may have at least one food allergy, Kaleo said, and up to 740,000 people are estimated to be at risk for anaphylaxis due to food reactions or insect stings alone at least once in their lifetime.

Auvi-Q was developed by twin brothers Eric and Evan Edwards, who grew up in the Richmond area. Both brothers have food allergies and wanted a compact, easy-to-use, intuitive device to have available in emergencies.