Major drugmaker plans to slash some insulin prices by 70 per cent

Drugmaker Eli Lilly will cut prices for some older insulins later this year and immediately give more patients access to a cap on what they pay to fill their prescriptions.

The move, announced Wednesday, promises critical relief for many Americans with diabetes who may face thousands of dollars in annual costs for the insulin they need to survive. Lilly’s change also comes as lawmakers and patients push for drugmakers to do something about rising prices.

Lilly said it would cut list prices for its most common insulin, Humalog, and another insulin, Humulin, by 70 percent or more in the fourth quarter, which began in October.

The list of prices is what the drug first set for the product and why people who do not have insurance or plans with high deductibles are sometimes stuck paying.

A Lilly spokesperson said the current list price for a 10-milliliter vial of Humalog fast-acting insulin is $274.70 US. can be sold for 66.40 US Dollars.

In addition, he said that the same amount of Humulin is currently at $148.70 US. can be exchanged for 44.61 US Dollars.

CBC News has reached out to Lilly to ask about the impact on insulin prices in Canada, as Humalog and Humulin are also available here, but has not heard back at the time of publication.

Lilly CEO David Ricks said Wednesday that his company is making changes to address issues that affect the price patients ultimately pay for insulin.

He noted that discounts offered by Lilly off the list often do not reach patients through insurance companies or pharmacy benefit managers. High deductible coverage can result in big bills at the pharmacy counter, especially at the beginning of the year when deductibles are updated.

“We know the current US health care system has gaps,” he said. “It makes a difficult disease like diabetes more difficult to manage.”

Call to help America’s uninsured

Patient advocates have long called for insulin price cuts to help uninsured Americans who would not be affected by price caps tied to insurance coverage.

Lilly’s planned cuts “could provide considerable price relief,” said Stacie Dusetzina, a professor of health policy at Vanderbilt University who studies drug costs.

He noted that the move won’t affect Lilly’s finances because the insulin is older, and some already have competition.

Lilly also said on Wednesday that it would reduce the price of the authorized generic version of Humalog to $25 US per bottle starting in May.

Lilly also launched a biosimilar insulin in April to compete with Sanofi’s Lantus.

Ricks said that it will take time for insurance and the pharmaceutical system to implement its price cuts, so the drugmaker will immediately close the monthly out-of-pocket costs at $35 US for people who are not covered by the Medicare prescription drug program.

The drug maker said the cap applies to people with commercial coverage and at most retail pharmacies.

Lilly said people without insurance can find a savings card to receive the same amount of insulin on the InsulinAffordability.com website.

The federal government in January began imposing the cap on patients who have coverage through the Medicare program for people age 65 and older or those with certain disabilities or illnesses.

President Joe Biden raised the cost cap during his annual State of the Union address last month. They are asking for the cost of insulin for everyone to be covered at $35 US.

Biden: ‘It’s a big deal’

Biden said in a statement Wednesday that Lilly responded to the call.

“This is a big deal, and it’s time for other manufacturers to follow suit,” Biden said.

He also noted that Americans “for a very long time” have faced higher drug costs than people in other countries.

In addition to Eli Lilly and French drugmaker Sanofi, other insulin manufacturers include Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk.

Representatives of Sanofi and Novo Nordisk said the companies offer several cost-limiting programs for people with and without coverage.

Insulin is made by the pancreas and used by the body to convert food into energy. People with diabetes do not produce enough insulin.

People with type 1 diabetes must take insulin every day to survive. More than eight million Americans use insulin, according to the American Diabetes Association.

Research shows that the price of insulin has tripled in the past two decades. Pressure is mounting on drug makers to help patients.

The state of California says it will explore making cheaper insulin. The drugmaker could also face competition from companies like the nonprofit Civica, which plans to produce three insulins at a suggested price of no more than $30 US per vial, a spokeswoman said.

Drugmakers may be seeing “the writing on the wall that high prices can’t last forever,” said Larry Levitt, executive vice president with the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation, which studies health care.

“Lilly is trying to get out of the problem and appear to the public like a good person,” Levitt said, adding that there is nothing stopping Lilly from raising prices again in the future.

Lilly officials said Wednesday that they have not raised insulin prices since 2017.

Ricks, Lilly’s CEO, said the drugmaker made the changes it announced Wednesday “because it’s time and it’s the right thing to do.”

Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co. became the first company to commercialize insulin in 1923, two years after University of Toronto scientists discovered insulin. The drug maker then built a reputation on producing insulin even as it branched out into cancer treatments, antipsychotics and other drugs.