Skyrocketing insulin prices sees American diabetics rationing their medicine to survive as pharma companies aim for higher profits
In 1922, Canadian scientists Frederick Banting and Charles Best had sold the patent for insulin that they had discovered to the University of Toronto for just $1, hoping it would cure diabetes. Today, a vial of insulin costs about $300 in the US and diabetic patients across age groups have been hit really hard. Skyrocketing prices of insulin have put America’s diabetic patients in a survival crisis.
Black, Hispanic and Asian people have been the biggest victims of the unregulated rise in the price of the essential drug as they are less likely to be insured. One in every four diabetes patients are rationing their insulin, according to a study made by the Journal of American Medical Association.
In January, a report released by the non-profit Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI) said the cost of insulin for treating Type 1 diabetes per patient in the US nearly doubled between 2012 and 2016. While a Type 1 diabetes patient had to spend $2,864 on an average annually for insulin in 2012, it shot up to $5,705 annually in 2016. These figures were about the combined amount paid by a patient and his health plan for the medicine and did not include rebates paid on a later date.
The rising cost of insulin has seen deaths in recent times as people can't afford the life-saving drug on their own. There have also been protests outside the headquarters of insulin manufacturers.
Individual insulin use has not increased much
According to the HCCI, the rise in the expenditure was caused by higher insulin prices overall and to a lesser extent, a shift towards costly insulin products. The report also said the average daily use of insulin increased by only three percent in the same five-year period.
Jeannie Fuglesten Biniek, a senior researcher at the Washington DC-based institute and the report's co-author, was quoted as saying by Reuters: “It's not that individuals are using more insulin or that new products are particularly innovative or provide immense benefits.”
Need to raise prices, say drugmakers
As per the drugmakers, they need to raise the US list prices of their medications to offset steep rebates they must offer to get the insurance plan coverage, said the Reuters report. Major pharmaceutical manufacturers have reportedly limited annual price hikes of prescription medicines under growing pressure from the Trump administration and Congress in the last two years. Another report said that the main reasons for these skyrocketing prices are deregulation and greed for profits.
In January, Democratic lawmakers brought in legislation aimed at reducing prescription medicine costs for consumers and wrote to 12 drug manufacturers, including the top three -- Eli Lilly and Co, Novo Nordisk A/S and Sanofi SA, to know information on the raising of prices. Last October, the attorney general of Minnesota sued the three top insulin makers and accused them of raising prices deceptively.
Some 1.25 million Americans are currently suffering from Type 1 diabetes, in which people fail to produce insulin to regulate their blood sugar levels. That number is estimated to go up to 5 million by 2050.