U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Ranking Member Ron Wyden of Oregon have launched a bipartisan investigation into insulin prices. The investigation is part of the committee’s goal to examine the entire U.S. drug pricing process and increasing costs of obtaining critical medicines.
Letters were sent to leading insulin manufacturers Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi requesting information on why these drugs have underwent increases of up to 500% or more for insulin, a hormone discovered 100 years ago to treat diabetes.
Grassley and Wyden requested information on the process used to determine list prices and the process used to determine net prices that result from negotiations and agreements with pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and large commercial plans. The letters also request information about the cost of research and development, production and marketing and advertising, revenues and gross margins from selling insulin, as well as the companies’ funding of patient assistance programs and third-party tax-exempt organizations.
The price of Eli Lilly’s Humalog increased from $35 to $234 between 2001 and 2015, a 585% increase. The price of Novo Nordisk’s Novolog increased from $289 to $540 between 2013 and 2019, an approximately 87% increase. The price of Sanofi’s Lantus increased from $244 to $431 between 2013 and 2019, an approximately 77% increase. Medicare and Medicaid spend hundreds of millions of dollars on each of these drugs every year.
“These hardships can lead to serious medical complications that are entirely preventable and completely unacceptable for the world’s wealthiest country,” the senators wrote. “In addition, the increased price of insulin has caused federal programs to pay more for diabetes care…When one insulin product costs the taxpayer more than a billion dollars in one year, the American people ought to know how the company prices its product.”
The release and links to the committee letters can be found here.
