Drug Makers Accused of Fixing Prices on Insulin

A lawsuit filed Monday accused three makers of insulin of conspiring to drive up the prices of their lifesaving drugs, harming patients who were being asked to pay for a growing share of their drug bills.

The price of insulin has skyrocketed in recent years, with the three manufacturers — Sanofi, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly — raising the list prices of their products in near lock step, prompting outcry from patient groups and doctors who have pointed out that the rising prices appear to have little to do with increased production costs.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Massachusetts, accuses the companies of exploiting the country’s opaque drug-pricing system in a way that benefits themselves and the intermediaries known as pharmacy benefit managers. It cites several examples of patients with diabetes who, unable to afford their insulin treatments, which can cost up to $900 a month, have resorted to injecting themselves with expired insulin or starving themselves to control their blood sugar. Some patients, the lawsuit said, intentionally allowed themselves to slip into diabetic ketoacidosis — a blood syndrome that can be fatal — to get insulin from hospital emergency rooms.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/30/health/drugmakers-lawsuit-insulin-drugs.html

Thankfully in the UK the cost of insulin is covered by the NHS so no out of pocket expense for insulin dependants YET 

graham64 wrote:A lawsuit filed Monday accused three makers of insulin of conspiring to drive up the prices of their lifesaving drugs, harming patients who were being asked to pay for a growing share of their drug bills.

The price of insulin has skyrocketed in recent years, with the three manufacturers — Sanofi, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly — raising the list prices of their products in near lock step, prompting outcry from patient groups and doctors who have pointed out that the rising prices appear to have little to do with increased production costs.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Massachusetts, accuses the companies of exploiting the country’s opaque drug-pricing system in a way that benefits themselves and the intermediaries known as pharmacy benefit managers. It cites several examples of patients with diabetes who, unable to afford their insulin treatments, which can cost up to $900 a month, have resorted to injecting themselves with expired insulin or starving themselves to control their blood sugar. Some patients, the lawsuit said, intentionally allowed themselves to slip into diabetic ketoacidosis — a blood syndrome that can be fatal — to get insulin from hospital emergency rooms.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/30/health/drugmakers-lawsuit-insulin-drugs.html

Thankfully in the UK the cost of insulin is covered by the NHS so no out of pocket expense for insulin dependants YET 

I know many American Blogger Friends have complained about the increase in insulin costs.
As you say Graham "Thankfully in the UK the cost of insulin is covered by the NHS so no out of pocket expense for insulin dependants YET "

All the best Jan

Diabetes, the gift that goes on giving - for the drug companies. No wonder there's so much pressure for high carb diets, they require more insulin in Type 1s and several orders of magnitude more in Type 2s. Kerching!

chris c wrote:Diabetes, the gift that goes on giving - for the drug companies. No wonder there's so much pressure for high carb diets, they require more insulin in Type 1s and several orders of magnitude more in Type 2s. Kerching!

Yep we know the cost savings that can be made in both T1 and T2 by going low carb, sadly we are dismissed as purely anecdotal that said David Unwin and others are making a good fist of showing the potential savings on drugs to the NHS

Indeed. If the ADA had looked at the thousand of people on their forums who controlled their diabetes with low carb over the last decade or more they could have had a huge long term study by now. I wonder why they never did? Well obviously because if they did by now they'd have no sponsors.

Little known fact, NICE quietly slipped in a change to their diabetes recommendations which as good as permits low carb now. The only reason I know that is because Joanne McCormack mentioned it, no doubt this information was never rolled out to doctors and especially not dieticians.