In this photo illustration, an insulin pen manufactured by the Novo Nordisk company is shown on March 14, 2023 in Miami, Florida.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images News | Getty Images
The top executives of the three drug companies that control 90% of the global insulin market testified on May 10 to the Senate Health Committee on lowering the price of their diabetes drugs, panel Chairman Sen. Bernie Sanders said Friday.
Those companies – Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi – announced in March that they would cut the prices of their most widely used insulin products by 70% or more.
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Sanders on Friday called that move an important step forward that was the result of “public outrage and strong grassroots efforts.”
But the Vermont independent added that Congress must make sure insulin, whose price has risen more than 1,000% since 1996, is affordable for everyone.
“However, we must ensure that the price cuts are enacted in a way that results in every American getting the insulin they need at an affordable price,” Sanders said in a statement announcing Eli’s scheduled testimony. Lilly CEO David Ricks, Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson and Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen.
The companies’ versions of insulin cost at least $275 before the announced price drop, Sanders said.
Eli Lilly declined to comment when asked about the scheduled hearing. A Sanofi spokeswoman said the company supports efforts to lower costs and believes other parts of the health care system need to do more to help patients. Novo Nordisk said its CEO looked forward to “a productive and collaborative discussion about this important issue.”
Top executives from three major pharmacy benefit managers CVS HealthExpress Scripts and Optum Rx also testified, according to Sanders’ office. Those executives are David Joyner, president of CVS Health pharmacy services; Adam Kautzner, president of Express Scripts; and Heather Cianfrocco, CEO of Optum Rx.
Pharmacy benefit managers are the middlemen who negotiate drug prices with manufacturers on behalf of health insurance plans. PBMs have been criticized for allegedly raising drug prices and not passing on all the discounts they negotiate to consumers.
The Health and Human Services Department estimates that 17% of patients using insulin in 2021 will have to ration the drug due to high costs.
About 19% of insulin users with private insurance rationed the drug, and 29% of uninsured insulin users did so, according to HHS.
The drug makers’ decision to cut insulin prices comes a month after President Joe Biden in his State of the Union address called for Congress to cap insulin prices at $35 a month.
Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act introduced that limit for people on Medicare, the government-run health coverage program primarily for senior citizens, but the law exempted people with private insurance.
More than 2 million patients with diabetes who take insulin are privately insured, according to HHS.
And about 150,000 patients taking insulin are uninsured, the department said.
On Thursday, two senators, Jeanne Shaheen, DN.H., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, introduced bipartisan legislation that would require private health insurance to cap prices at $35 per month for one of each type of insulin and dosage form. The bill includes other measures to reduce prices.
Types of insulin include rapid, short, intermediate and long acting, as well as pre-mixed. Dosage forms include vials, pens and inhalers.
