More and more states are joining a major lawsuit to hold the makers of Insulin liable for price gouging American consumers for decades. These lawsuits could force the companies to pay up big time for scamming the public.
Mother fuckers gouging sick people… it’s got to be the worst part of capitalism
This along with the fact almost 50% of the homeless population is employed. Together, both vividly demonstrate capitalism is utilized for oppression so sociopaths can add more to their already outlandishly massive bank accounts.
It’s a shame that the people involved with this lawsuit are either ignorant or intentionally misleading their audience.
And over the last 20 years, we have seen over a 1000% increase in spite of the fact nothing’s changed with the drug. The cost to produce it has gotten lower. But we are getting screwed hundreds, possibly thousands of dollars a month.
“Insulin” is more than just one drug. Traditional (short lasting) insulin is relatively cheap. A “Novolin N or R ReliOn vial” (which I just learned is available over the counter) with 1000 units of insulin is $25. Rapid and long lasting insulins are what’s expensive, but those are recent advancements. See https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7864088/ for a list of some of these.
It’s weird that he says prices have gone up 1000% over the last 20 years. According to https://www.goodrx.com/healthcare-access/research/how-much-does-insulin-cost-compare-brands prices went up 54% from 2014 to 2019 and dropped 10% from 2020 to 2023. Is he really suggesting that prices went up 590% from 2003 to 2013? I wasn’t able to verify that claim. According to https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN0X22B0/ the price went up 197% from 2002 to 2013. Added up that means prices have gone up 310% in the past 21 years. That’s still a lot but also: inflation since then is 73%. Account for inflation and that 310% increase drops to a 140% increase - a 7th of the alleged 1000% increase. That’s basically how much housing prices have gone up in that same time period. That’s still a lot and it’s still shitty, but if you have to make up numbers to get your point across, I question whether you’re the best person to be conveying that point.
According to https://diabetes.org/tools-resources/affordable-insulin both Sanofi and Lilly have programs that cap out of pocket expenses for most people to $35 a month, and that includes the new drugs. If someone you know is struggling to pay for their insulin, make sure they know about these programs. They’re getting a lot more marketing now that the federal government negotiated the $35 cap for medicaid/medicare patients, but those programs have been around for a while. It’s frustrating to see so many discussions about how pharmaceutical companies are exploiting people without anyone sharing (or even mentioning) the resources that can help them.
It’s also frustrating that all of the claims about companies colluding are completely unbacked. Is there any evidence of this? I don’t find it hard to believe that pharmaceutical companies price their products as high as they can because they like money. I certainly don’t trust a person who’s already shown his other statements to be demonstrably untrue when he makes a statement that can’t be verified one way or another.
The anti-R&D arguments are also exhausting. Pharmaceutical companies do spend a ton of money on R&D - according to https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/060115/how-much-drug-companys-spending-allocated-research-and-development-average.asp Lilly spent a quarter of their revenue on R&D in 2020 (I didn’t see the other names mentioned). No, that’s no 80+% like it’s made out to be, but it does mean that the most prices could possibly be reduced without negatively impacting innovation is to a quarter of where they were in 2020, and that’s assuming that someone else pays for all the other expenses (manufacturing, distribution, marketing, education, etc.). According to that article, “The average R&D to marketplace cost for a new medicine is nearly $4 billion, and can sometimes exceed $10 billion.” According to https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8855407/ the top end of that range is more like $6 billion, but still. Either way, that money has to come from somewhere.
It’s good to see PBMs mentioned, though. They’re literally middlemen who provide 0 value. Even if they’re not doing anything illegal they should still be outlawed.
The two scientists responsible for producing the insulin we use today each took $0.50 for the discovery. Probably due to them being human and seeing the first patient given the drug basically spring to life by the time the last patient was given a dose. Too bad most are blinded by forever chasing a dollar these days.
Edit: I’ve been a lifetime diabetic and seen some of the most amazing people die long painful deaths due to insulin’s unaffordability through the 90s and into the 2000s. While it’s amazing to see more states caping the price, it wasn’t always that way and FUCK these scum.
We don’t use that insulin today. Why do you think we do?
Science is built on the shoulders of giants my friend. Those men are why I breath today and they did it for a small sum.
And acting like they were the only people responsible diminishes the achievements of everyone involved since.
Are you arguing the folks who’ve made tweaks to the molecule deserve soo much money that some patients can’t afford it? Cause when it first came out and was seen as a miracle, it was easily accessible.
