Eli Lilly Will Slash Insulin Costs, Cap Out-Of-Pocket Expenses

ACROSS AMERICA — Eli Lily and Company said Wednesday it will cap the cost of most of its insulin products at $35 or less monthly out-of-pocket expenses to “help Americans who may have difficulty navigating a complex health care system that may keep them from getting affordable insulin.”

More than 30 million Americans live with diabetes. For them, insulin is a lifesaving drug, but it has become unaffordable with annual costs of more than $1,000 for some patients.

In addition to the immediate cap on insulin costs for insured patients, the changes announced Wednesday also mean:

• Lilly will cut the cost of Humalog, its most commonly prescribed drug, and Humulin by 70 percent, starting in the fourth quarter, which begins in September.
• The company also said it will cut the costs of its authorized generic version of Humalog to $25 a vial starting in May.

The drugmaker didn't detail what the new prices would be. List prices are what a drugmaker initially sets for a product and what people who have no insurance or plans with high deductibles are sometimes stuck paying.

The announcement of critical relief comes as lawmakers and patient advocates pressure drugmakers to do something about escalating prices.

The company didn’t say how much the drugs will cost and how affordable they will be for patients who are uninsured and aren’t affected by the price caps. A study last fall found that nearly 30 percent of uninsured Americans living with diabetes ration their insulin.

To calculate insulin rationing, researchers at Harvard Medical School, the City University of New York’s Hunter College and the consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen analyzed data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 2021 National Health Interview Survey The results were published in the Annals of Internal Medicine in November.

The researchers determined that in 2021, 16.5 percent of U.S. adults with diabetes who use insulin — about 1.3 million Americans — rationed the drug by either skipping doses, taking less or delaying buying it to stretch their health care dollars.

Stacie Dusetzina, a health policy professor at Vanderbilt University who studies drug costs, told The Associated Press the price cuts “could actually provide some substantial relief.”

She noted that the moves likely won't affect Lilly much financially because the insulins are older and some already face competition.

“It makes it easier for Lilly to go ahead and make these changes,” she said.

The cost of a prescription for generic Humalog ranges between $44 and close to $100 on the website GoodRx.

Lilly also is launching in April a biosimilar insulin to compete with Sanofi's Lantus.

Lilly CEO David Ricks said in a statement that it will take time for insurers and the pharmacy system to implement its price cuts, so the drugmaker will immediately cap monthly out-of-pocket costs at $35 for people who are not covered by Medicare’s prescription drug program.

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

Lilly said people without insurance can find savings cards to receive insulin for the same amount at its InsulinAffordability.com website.

The federal government in January started applying that cap to patients with coverage through its Medicare program for people age 65 and older or those who have certain disabilities or illnesses.

American Diabetes Association CEO Chuck Henderson said in a statement he applauded the steps Lilly was taking and called for other insulin makers to also cap patient costs.

Aside from Eli Lilly and the French drugmaker Sanofi, other insulin makers include the Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk.

Neither company immediately responded to a request for comment Wednesday morning from The Associated Press.

Insulin is made by the pancreas and used by the body to convert food into energy. People who have diabetes don't produce enough insulin.
People with Type 1 diabetes must take insulin every day to survive. More than 8 million Americans use insulin, according to the American Diabetes Association.

Research has shown that prices for insulin have more than tripled in the last two decades, and pressure is growing on drugmakers to help patients.

President Joe Biden brought up the cost cap during his annual State of the Union address last month. He called for insulin costs for everyone to be capped at $35.

The state of California has said it plans to explore making its own cheaper insulin. Drugmakers also may face competition from companies like the nonprofit Civica, which plans to produce three insulins at a recommended price of no more than $30 a vial, a spokeswoman said.

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

“Lilly is trying to get out ahead of the issue and look to the public like the good guy,” Levitt said.

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

Humulin and Humalog and its authorized generic brought in a total of more than $3 billion in revenue for Lilly last year, and more than $3.5 billion the year before that.

“These are treatments that have had a really long and successful life and should be less costly to patients,” Dusetzina said.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.