8 Reasons Why Insulin is so Outrageously Expensive (USA)

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Northerner

Northerner

Admin (Retired)
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Why does insulin cost so much to patients in the USA and around the world? Why is insulin, a widely sold drug of which most forms are now off-patent, so incredibly expensive? These are simple questions, but ones with a number of complicated answers. This post will break some of those answers down and point you in the direction further reading if you want to dive deeper.

https://www.t1international.com/blog/2019/01/20/why-insulin-so-expensive/
 
It keeps me & others alive ? When I was first diagnosed lots where dying. Not that long ago ?
 
It’s a problem where people or insurance companies have to pay, Hobie. They don’t have the coordinationated weight of the NHS to drive prices down.

It is nothing more than profiteering from a closed market, and it is for governments to invoke anti trust laws to bring the companies to heel. The big three operate as a cartel, and all make vast profits. It’s only been a problem since they stopped getting out of pigs and cows. You can’t patent animal insulins, apart from the long acting versions.
 
So is it a problem with USA & ins companies ? 🙂. Problems in the world ?
 
Yes Hobie - despite the fact that you pay for medical insurance in the US - they can dictate what insulin they will pay for, and as far as pumpers are concerned - what pump they'll fund and what medical experts you can see, not only re diabetes but for anything you might happen to have. None of them share info with each other.

Ruddy nightmare, in my book.
 
But have to bear in mind that insulin revenue for the market leader in diabetes, Novo, has stagnated since 2015 despite the increasing prevalence of insulin requiring diabetes worldwide, mainly because their main products, Novorapid has gone off patent and Levemir goes off patent this year,
their turnover increase has come from ancillary products particularly GLP1 for type 2, liraglutide and derivatives, and obesity, and to a lesser extent tresiba, and Fiasp improved basal and short-acting insulins compared with glargine and novorapid,
this has been extremely expensive to develop,
the pioneer trials of oral semiglutide required no less than 10 phase 3 trials with separate cardiovascular safety and Japanese population studies,
seems to me the success of Novo over the years has been down to the increasing population of patients with diabetes and their innovative approach to drug development, and their drugs are no more expensive than other non-insulin drugs in the American market,
for example Glaxo is facing the loss of its patent on its main asthma treatment and severe competition.
 
I would buy that ‘expensive to develop’ argument, but these drug companies make enormous profits whether or not doing research.
 
If analogs were so expensive to develop that $300 or more dollars per vial was an appropriate price, I would have thought this would have been the price set to start with
 
I note that the directors of the company that developed the new cystic fibrosis drug that they are charging the NHS eye watering amounts to buy, each made $15m dollars last year in salary and benefits.

Nice to know somebody is benefiting from the drug, I suppose.
 
mikeyB said:
I would buy that ‘expensive to develop’ argument, but these drug companies make enormous profits whether or not doing research.
Click to expand...

Just looked at the financials for Novo Nordisk and I see that they have a profit margin of 35% and a return on equity of 76%. High for a company doing ~USD 18 billion in revenue!
 
Especially when people are rationing medication and endangering their health or being "forced" onto cheaper products which make it harder to manage their condition and cope with day to day life
 
mikeyB said:
I note that the directors of the company that developed the new cystic fibrosis drug that they are charging the NHS eye watering amounts to buy, each made $15m dollars last year in salary and benefits.

Nice to know somebody is benefiting from the drug, I suppose.
Click to expand...
I don’t know how they sleep at night.
 
looks as though Eli Lilly, one of the big 3, is going to offer its rapid insulin Lispro at half price on the American market.
 
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