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The Eli Lilly & Co. logo appears. On a box of insulin medicine in this photo arranged at a pharmacy in Princeton, Illinois.
Daniel Acker | bloomberg | Getty Images
Eli Lilly CEO Dave Ricks vowed Wednesday to never raise prices on the company’s existing insulin products again — the only CEO to do so before Senate Health Committee hearing To make life-saving diabetes medicine accessible to everyone.
Senator Bernie Sanders, chairman of the committee, asked Ricks and the CEOs of Novo Nordisk And Sanofi Commitment to “never increase the price of any insulin drug again.” control of the three companies more than 90% in the global insulin market.
Rex was the only executive who fully agreed to Sanders’ request — at least for Eli Lilly’s current insulin products.
“We’re going to leave our prices the same for insulin on the market today,” Ricks told the Vermont senator. “Actually, we cut it.”
Meanwhile, Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Froergaard Jorgensen said the Danish company is committed to limiting price increases to “single digits.”
Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson replied that the company has a “responsible pricing policy”.
As pointed out net price For Sanofi, insulin products are already declining. The net price refers to how much insurance companies pay for the insulin drug after deductibles and rebates. It is usually lower than the price shown on the product.
The three companies faced years of political pressure to make insulin more accessible to people with diabetes.
In March, they each announced that they would cut prices for their most commonly used insulin products.
Lilly said it will price an injection of Lispro at $25 a vial, effective May 1, and will cut the price of its Humalog and Humulin injections by 70% starting in the fourth quarter.
The company also said it would limit out-of-pocket costs for people with private insurance to $35 per month at participating retail pharmacies.
Novo Nordisk said it will cut the price of NovoLog insulin by 75% and cut the prices of Levemir and Novolin by 65% ​​starting next year.
Sanofi said it plans to reduce the price of its most popular insulin drug, Lantus, by 78% and reduce the list price of its short-acting insulin, Apidra, by 70%.
At the hearing, Sanders called those actions “good news” and a result of public pressure.
But the senator said the committee plans to hold a hearing next year to make sure these price cuts are “actually happening.”
“We just don’t want words. We want action,” Sanders said in his opening remarks.
“We must make sure that price cuts are in effect so that every American with diabetes gets the insulin they need at an affordable price,” Sanders added.
CVS, Express Scripts, and Optum Rx
The hearing also brought together other key players in the insulin industry: CEOs from three of the largest pharmacy benefit managers.
These executives are David Joiner, President CVS Health pharmacy services; Adam Kautzner, President, Express Scripts; and Heather Cianfrocco, CEO, Optum Rx.
PBMs are the middlemen who negotiate drug prices with manufacturers on behalf of health insurance plans. They are often criticized for allegedly inflating drug prices and not passing on all of the discounts and rebates they negotiate to consumers.
Joiner stressed that CVS Health passes over 98% of all rebates on to customers.
“We’ve always prioritized bringing truly transparent offerings to the market,” he said during the session.
But Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Nye, stressed that 84 cents of every dollar goes to PBMs.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, also highlighted the huge gap between list and net insulin prices from 2012 to 2021.
Collins asked Rex to explain “who gets this money” because “I can tell you it’s not going to the consumer at the pharmacy counter.”
Rex told her to ask the PBMs “how this money is being redistributed”.
Government hats
Nearly 37 million people in the United States have diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. almost 8.4 million have diabetes Patients depend on insulin.
High prices have forced many Americans to insulin servings or reduce their use of the drug. 2021 Stady In the Annals of Internal Medicine it was found that nearly 1 in 5 adults in the United States either skipped, delayed, or used less insulin to save money.
The Reducing Inflation Act, the Democratic plan Biden signed last year, capped monthly insulin costs for prescription Medicare recipients at $35 a month, but failed to protect diabetics covered by private insurance.
According to the Department of Health and Human Services, more than 2 million patients with diabetes who take insulin are privately insured. HHS says another 150,000 or so patients who take insulin do not have insurance.
Last month, Sen. Jean Shaheen, D-N.H. , and Collins passed bipartisan legislation requiring private health insurance for Pricing caps at $35 per month For one of each type and dosage form of insulin.
These types of insulin include rapid, short, intermediate, and long-acting insulin, as well as pre-mixed. Dosage forms include vials, pens, and inhalers.
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