Eli Lilly says he will cut the price of insulin – 06/03/2023 – Equilibrium and Health

Pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly said last Wednesday (1st) that it will significantly reduce the final prices of several of its insulin products, which are used by patients with diabetes and whose prices have been raised repeatedly in the past.

Trying to assuage criticism over excessive drug prices, Lilly also said it will cap what patients pay out-of-pocket for the company’s insulin to $35 a month — although it already had that policy in place.

Lilly has been a major contributor to rising prices for an injection that millions of Americans depend on to keep their blood sugar at levels that allow them to live. The announcement comes at a time of growing political pressure on pharmaceutical companies to rein in what lawmakers and other critics consider the industry’s abusive profitability.

For nearly three decades, for example, Lilly has raised the list price of its most widely used insulin product, Humalog, by more than 1,000%.

The high costs of insulin manufactured by Lilly and other pharmaceutical companies—out-of-pocket payments by people in certain high-tax-deductible insurance plans can exceed $1,000 a month, even though most patients pay much less—have driven many patients to ration their insulin supply.

In his State of the Union address last month, President Joe Biden criticized pharmaceutical companies for raising insulin prices. “Big pharmaceutical companies unfairly charge people hundreds of dollars, from $400 to $500 a month, making record profits,” he said.

On Wednesday, Biden hailed Lilly’s announcement as “a big decision, and it’s time for other manufacturers to follow.”

Lilly heralded its decision as a win for patients.

In reality, however, the laboratory’s measurements are more limited than they initially appear. Lilly’s current limit of $35 (about R$181) for direct payments will be more easily taken advantage of by patients with private insurance. But the policies announced on Wednesday won’t have much, if any, effect on what many people are actually paying.

And Lilly already charged insurers just a fraction of its high list price when accounting for rebates and discounts.

David Ricks, CEO of Lilly, acknowledged in an interview on Wednesday that changes at the company are not guaranteed to lead insurers to pay less for Humalog, although he said he hoped that would happen.

Additionally, the lower list prices, which will take effect later this year, only apply to Lilly’s older insulin products.

“I don’t think these prices are as impressive as they seem when you first see them,” said Stacie Dusetzina, a professor of health policy at Vanderbilt University’s school of medicine. “It doesn’t necessarily mean that Lilly is taking a huge financial hit by doing this.”

More than 30 million Americans have diabetes, and more than 7 million of them are insulin dependent. Without insulin, patients can die or face serious health consequences, including amputation and kidney failure.

Lilly’s price cuts follow years of mounting pressure not just from officials in Washington and state capitals, but also from a well-organized community of patients calling for insulin to be made more affordable.

Lilly’s announcement follows a change that took effect earlier this year for Medicare patients. [seguro de saúde do governo dos Estados Unidos destinado a pessoas a partir de 65 anos ou de baixa renda]. Under last year’s Reducing Inflation Act, Congress imposed a cap of $35 per month on insulin copayments for Medicare patients.

Lilly said it plans to reduce Humalog’s list price by 70% in the last three months of this year.

A bottle of Humalog — patients often use several bottles a month — has a list price of $275; Lilly intends to reduce the value to US$ 66 (or almost R$ 343). However, insurers already pay far less than that: the average net price Lilly charged in 2021 for a vial of Humalog or its generic version was US$43 (R$223) after discounts and rebates, according to the company’s website. company.

Humalog’s new $66 list price will still be more than triple what it was when the product was introduced in 1996. (Lilly has said it will also drastically reduce the list price of its generic version of Humalog, as well as another of its insulin product, Humulin.)

Lilly said one of its new Humalog products, a pre-filled insulin pen with a list price of US$530 (or R$2,753), will not be reduced in price. Neither has its long-acting insulin product, Basaglar, which was first approved in 2015.

Lilly’s announcement “doesn’t mean the situation has been resolved or that everything is fine,” said Elizabeth Pfiester, who has diabetes and is executive director of T1 International, a group that pushes for a federal cap on insulin prices.

“That’s good news for some, but we need regulation to make sure companies don’t change their minds again and decide to raise the price,” she added.

Some patient advocates are also pushing for legislation that requires insulin manufacturers not to charge more in the United States than elsewhere. Insulin is much cheaper in other countries, where governments negotiate prices directly with drug manufacturers.

Ricks said Lilly opposes “federal government pricing,” saying his company and other drugmakers need incentives to innovate and develop improved versions of insulin.

Asked whether Lilly would rule out further price increases for Humalog and other products for which it announced price cuts on Wednesday, Ricks declined to make a firm commitment. He said the company hadn’t raised the list price of any of its insulin products since 2017.

_{Translated by Luiz Roberto M. Gonçalves}