(New York) The American pharmaceutical group Eli Lilly, criticized for the high prices of its insulin, will reduce them drastically and cap the amount to be paid for this drug on which millions of Americans suffering from diabetes depend at 35 dollars per month.
US President Joe Biden, who has regularly denounced the increase in prices charged by laboratories for this vital treatment in recent months, quickly welcomed this announcement.
“Insulin costs less than $10 to make, but Americans sometimes have to pay over $300 to get it. It is simply unfair,” he said in a statement before urging other pharmaceutical companies to “follow” this example.
Sanofi and Novo Nordisk, which together with Eli Lilly represent the big three insulin manufacturers in the United States, assured in messages to AFP that they themselves have programs limiting the money to be paid out for eligible patients, ranging from $100 free.
Eli Lilly’s gesture is all the more important since the number of diabetics in the United States has more than doubled in twenty years, with 37.3 million people now suffering from this disease, according to the authorities. And diabetes is now the 7e cause of death in the country.
“Lilly is taking these steps to make Lilly insulins more readily available and to help Americans who may have difficulty navigating a complex healthcare system that may prevent them from obtaining insulin at a reasonable price,” said the company in a press release.
In detail, the laboratory will firstly reduce the price of its best-selling insulins, Humalog and Humulin, by 70% from the fourth quarter of 2023.
Eli Lilly will at the same time reduce the price of its generic insulin Insulin Lispro to 25 dollars per vial from 1er May, against 82 dollars currently.
The group will also cap the maximum amount to be paid at $35 per month for insured patients who have to pay an out-of-pocket payment and for uninsured patients, thus aligning itself with proposals from the US government.
Eli Lilly unwittingly came under fire in November after he posted a tweet from a spoofed Twitter account promising free insulin. The episode had revived the debate on the price of the drug.
Public pressure
The price of insulin in the United States has risen sharply in recent years, nearly doubling between 2012 and 2016 before leveling off, according to a memo from the Department of Health.
Drug manufacturers regularly claim that they are simultaneously granting increasingly large discounts to insurers.
According to Damien Conover, pharmaceutical sector specialist at Morningstar, these discounts currently represent almost 80% of the official price and will surely drop, leaving Eli Lilly “less affected than the reduction in prices (of 70%, editor’s note) might suggest” .
But the price increases have hit some diabetics without insurance or those who have to pay a high out-of-pocket bill hard.
The law aimed at fighting inflation (IRA) adopted in the summer of 2022 included among its measures a cap on the out-of-pocket at $35 per month for patients covered by Medicare, the public health insurance reserved for those over 65. years in the United States.
Mr. Biden pleaded during his State of the Union address in early February for an extension of this cap to all diabetics.
However, such a measure is unlikely to pass since the House of Representatives is now controlled by Republicans, who are generally hostile to any measure limiting corporate power.
The National Committee of the Democratic Party (DNC) recalled Wednesday that all elected Republicans had voted last summer against the IRA.
The American Diabetic Association ADA, in a separate statement, welcomed Eli Lilly’s decision and “encouraged other insulin manufacturers to do the same”.
Democratic officials also applauded the news, with influential Senator Bernie Sanders pointing out, for example, that after posting nearly $7 billion in profits last year, Eli Lilly bowed to “public pressure “.