(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Kos Diabetes Group: Insulin Price Caps [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-03-24 Biden wanted insulin prices capped for everyone in the original Inflation Reduction Act. Although 7 Republicans voted for that to stay in the bill , it fell short of the 60 votes needed and so the price cap in the final version of the bill only applied to Medicare patients when it was finally passed. Our man Biden kept quietly working on this, mentioning again during his State of the Union address how he would like to see the price of insulin capped at $35/for all Americans. On March 1, 2023 Eli Lilly announced that it was going to reduce the price for its most commonly prescribed insulins by 70% and expand its Insulin Value Program that caps patient out-of-pocket costs at $35 or less per month. Here is the breakdown of Eli Lilly’s price reduction: Cutting the list price of its non-branded insulin, Insulin Lispro Injection 100 units/mL, to $25 a vial. Effective May 1, 2023, it will be the lowest list-priced mealtime insulin available, and less than the price of a Humalog ® vial in 1999. Cutting the list price of Humalog ® (insulin lispro injection) 100 units/mL 1 , Lilly's most commonly prescribed insulin, and Humulin ® (insulin human) injection 100 units/mL 2 by 70%, effective in Q4 2023. Launching Rezvoglar TM (insulin glargine-aglr) injection, a basal insulin that is biosimilar to, and interchangeable with, Lantus ® (insulin glargine) injection, for $92 per five pack of KwikPens ® , a 78% discount compared to Lantus, effective April 1, 2023. A couple of weeks later Novo Nordisk announced that it would slash the list prices of several of its popular pre-filled insulin pens and vials by up to 75%, joining Eli Lilly in reducing the cost of the critical medicine for diabetes patients. The price changes for Novo Nordisk insulin products will take effect January 1, 2024. After the reductions, Novo Nordisk’s NovoLog and NovoLog Mix 70/30 will cost $72.34 per vial and $139.71 per FlexPen. Also, the company is lowering the list price of Levemir and Novolin by 65% to $107.85 per vial and $161.77 per FlexPen for Levemir and to $48.20 per vial and $91.09 per FlexPen for Novolin. Novo Nordisk is reducing the price of two unbranded insulin products to match the lowered price of the corresponding brands as well. Sanofi was the last to jump on the bandwagon and announce that they are also capping their prices for insulin products, announcing on March 16, 2023 that it will cut the list price of Lantus (insulin glargine injection) 100 Units/mL, its most widely prescribed insulin in the U.S., by 78 percent. The company also will establish a $35 cap on out-of-pocket costs for Lantus for all patients with commercial insurance, underscoring its longstanding commitment to offer affordable access to medicines. Like Novo Nordisk’s price reductions, those from Sanofi will also go into effect January 1, 2024. They will be in addition to steps taken in June 2022 to lower diabetes medicines costs: the launch of an unbranded Lantus biologic at -60% versus Lantus list price, and a cap on out-of-pocket costs on insulin to $35 for all people without insurance. Sanofi’s suite of savings programs ensures that no patient will pay more than $35 for a monthly supply of Lantus. Finally, Sanofi will also cut the list price of its short-acting Apidra (insulin glulisine injection) 100 Units/mL by 70%. Diabetics may have something left in their wallets after all the price reductions go into effect next year. This is great news because these three companies supply about 90% of the insulin used in the US. The price caps announced by Eli Lilly and Sanofi apply to uninsured patients as well as those with insurance which will make it much less likely that uninsured patients will need to ration or skip doses of insulin. I don’t know if the decision to lower their prices was because of the pressure Biden and the Democrats were putting on them or if they could see that they may not be the only game in town much longer since California and the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company are both working on manufacturing and selling their own brands of insulin. For whatever reason, it’s good news for insulin dependent diabetics. Update: In the GNR this morning Chloris Creator had a small piece about Sen Warnock introducing a bill yesterday that would cap the price of insulin at $35 for persons with private insurance and for the uninsured. It’s being co-sponsored by GOP Sen John Kennedy. Seven Republican senators voted for the measure when it was included in the Inflation Reduction Act, so without all the other “woke” stuff that was in the IRA, I think there is a good chance that we will get the 10 Republican votes needed to pass this. It would be wonderful because then there will be no takesy-backsies by Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/3/24/2159695/-Kos-Diabetes-Group-Insulin-Price-Caps Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/