On Wednesday Eli Lilly cut down insulin prices by 70%. This means insulin earlier which costed around $82.41 per vial will now cost for only $25.
Not just this, but it has also decided to cut off the listed price of its most commonly prescribed insulins, Humalog that costs $530 for a 5-pack of injections and Humulin that costs for about $275 for 100 vial by 70% by fourth quarter of 2023.
Along with this, Lilly will be extending its IVP (Insulin Value Program) which costs about $1300 per month especially for diabetic patients without insurance with a cap cost of $35 per month even for the uninsured patients as all the drugmakers are facing the problem of growing federal pressure to lower the cost of insulin and also the increased need of diabetic treatment for about 16.5% of people in US. The Inflation Reduction Act capped insulin prices for Mediclaim beneficiaries at $35 per month but it did not protect people without insurance.
The announcement comes amid growing federal pressure to lower the cost of insulin. The Inflation Reduction Act capped insulin prices for Medicare beneficiaries at $35 per month but did not protect people with private insurance or who don’t have coverage from higher prices.
David A. Ricks, Lilly & Co CEO said, “While the current healthcare system provides access to insulin for most people with diabetes, it still does not provide affordable insulin for everyone and that needs to change. The aggressive price cuts we’re announcing today should make a real difference for Americans with diabetes. Because these price cuts will take time for the insurance and pharmacy system to implement, we are taking the additional step to immediately cap out-of-pocket costs for patients who use Lilly insulin and are not covered by the recent Medicare Part D cap.”
In current times more than 37.3 million citizen of U.S are suffering from diabetes says the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the 2022 study by the American Diabetes Association, it was observed that the demand for insulin has increased rapidly nearly 3 times within the period 2002-2013. And from 2014-2019 the rose up to 54% as per the GoodRx research.
At the Union speech, the U.S. President Joe Biden approached the congress to cap the insulin prices at $35 per month for everyone. On Wednesday, in a statement he said, “For far too long, American families have been crushed by drug costs many times higher than what people in other countries are charged for the same prescriptions.
Insulin costs less than $10 to make, but Americans are sometimes forced to pay over $300 for it. It’s flat wrong.” But after Lilly’s decision the Mr. Biden welcomed her decision and captioned it as “a big deal”. He also requested Drugmaker to cut down the prices. Mr. Biden said, “Last year, I signed a law to cap insulin at $35 for seniors and I called on pharma companies to bring prices down for everyone on their own. Today, Eli Lilly did that. It’s a big deal, and it’s time for other manufacturers to follow,”
Lilly made another huge announcement that on 1st April they will introduce another product named Rezvoglar which will be a biosimilar of LANTUS made by Sanofi which will be a pocket friendly version of the best insulins. The Rezvoglar, will be interchangeable with Lantus. It will now get 78% discount and cost $92 per five pack of KwikPens.
