Fight to lower insulin prices isn’t over

On March 1, drug manufacturer Eli Lilly announced its plan to institute a $35 cap on out-of-pocket insulin costs. Two weeks later, Novo Nordisk announced plans to cut its insulin prices by up to 75%. And just two days after that, Sanofi announced its decision to cut the U.S. price of its most prescribed insulin by 78% and cap costs at $35 for those with private insurance.

Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi make up roughly 90% of the insulin market in the United States, a market that for decades has been characterized by skyrocketing costs and unbelievable price gouging. To understand the true depth of this crisis of skyrocketing costs and price-gouging, we
must go back a century, when insulin was first discovered.

In 1923, the inventors of insulin sold their patent for just $1. They felt it was unethical to profit from a discovery that would save so many lives. But since then, insulin costs have skyrocketed, jumping 500% just in the last decade or so, with a vial costing as much as multiple thousands of dollars per month.

April Gamiz/The Morning Call

U.S. Rep. Susan Wild, D-7th District. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)

Americans represent 15% of the global insulin market, yet we generate almost half the pharmaceutical industry’s insulin revenue — because the cost of insulin in the United States is up to 10 times more than that of other countries. Here in the United States, we pay about $98.70 per standard unit of insulin according to research by the nonpartisan think tank Rand Corp.

The next highest rate anywhere around the world? Japan, where patients pay $14.40 per unit. This isn’t an accident.

Big Pharma has for decades taken advantage of the nonexistent regulation on drug pricing in the United States to make billions in profit off insulin.

These profits are possible thanks to little to no regulation, and a process called “evergreening” — meaning when drug companies do something as little as tinkering with a molecule or changing the delivery system of a drug to make an incremental improvement. This kind of tiny change allows manufacturers to extend the life of a patent and thus extend their exclusive right to charge whatever they want.

Many of these same insulin products have been continuously available for years without improvements, yet their price tags have gone up at a rate far higher than the rate of inflation.

Hundreds of millions in dark money each year goes towards lobbying to intimidate Congress from reining in the pharmaceutical industry. In 2022 alone, pharma and health product companies spent a record $372 million lobbying against pricing regulations and Medicare negotiations. Pharma is well-funded and well-connected, which is why it is so difficult to pass legislation regulating the industry — and why last year’s Inflation Reduction Act was so historic,
because it was the first successful attempt in decades to curtail Big Pharma price gouging.

This fight is exactly why I ran for office in the first place. I’ve even been called a dog with a bone when it comes to my work to get drug prices down. From the Lower Drug Prices Now Act, to the Affordable Insulin Now Act, to my own bipartisan Fair Drug Prices for Kids Act, I have co-sponsored and voted to pass legislation to lower prices.

I’ve called on congressional leadership time and again to act, and I’ve stood with my constituents affected by high insulin prices to call attention to the crises they face. I helped pass into law the Inflation Reduction Act that finally realizes many of these priorities.

The law caps the cost of insulin at $35 per month for Medicare beneficiaries, empowers Medicare to negotiate the cost of a handful of drugs, and requires manufacturers to pay rebates to Medicare if they increase prices faster than inflation. It’s a huge victory, but it’s not the end of the road.

Pharmaceutical giants see the writing on the wall: Americans will no longer tolerate their corporate greed.

At any point in the last century, Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi could have cut their insulin prices and saved lives. Their decision to do it now doesn’t come out of “corporate responsibility” — it comes as a part of a clear effort to stave off further congressional action regulating drug pricing.

But this means Congress must act, because your ability to afford life-sustaining insulin shouldn’t be dependent on the whims of pharmaceutical companies’ decisions to raise or lower prices at will.

We’ve made important progress, but there is more to do. To the countless people across our community who depend on insulin or have children who depend on insulin, who have been forced to ration insulin vials, who have struggled to make ends meet as costs rose higher and higher: I will be your advocate until we cap the price of insulin for everyone.

U.S. Rep. Susan Wild, D-7th District represents the Lehigh Valley in Congress.

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