Doctors Without Borders calls on pharmaceutical companies to lower the price of insulin pens

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) on Wednesday May 7 called on pharmaceutical laboratories to lower the price of insulin pens, used today by millions of diabetes patients, according to a report from the NGO published Wednesday. Today, worldwide, 60% of diabetic patients who inject insulin do so using an injector pen. These pens are much easier to handle than a syringe and a dosage error is rarer when using it.

However, the problem with these pens is their cost. MSF explains that the price differences are enormous depending on the country: they are sold for three dollars in South Africa, 28 dollars in the United States, while their manufacturing cost is only one euro and 30 cents for the industrial.

With 500 million diabetic people in the world, 80% of whom are in poor or developing countries, Doctors Without Borders is asking manufacturers, such as Sanofi, Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk in particular, to lower their prices. The NGO also asks laboratories to transfer their patents to allow competitors to manufacture generic insulins in the future.