The high cost of insulin has been a niggling thorn in the side of regulators and patients for decades: Prices for the 100-year-old drug have increased more than 600% in the past 20 years, and stories of patients rationing doses abound. Even the most conservative economists point to it as an example of a market gone sour.
Despite repeated efforts at the federal and state level to rein in the cost of pharmaceuticals, prices go up each year, growing quicker than any other health care service and routinely outpacing the rate of inflation.
This year, California is poised to do something different to cut the cost of insulin, attacking the problem on three fronts. And if it works for insulin prices, it could work for other drugs:
- Lawmakers have introduced a bevy of bills targeting out-of-pocket insulin costs. They have also advanced legislation ensuring cost savings for all drugs get passed down to patients;
- Attorney General Rob Bonta is suing the nation’s largest insulin manufacturers and pharmaceutical benefit managers for driving up the cost of the life-saving drug, alleging unfair business practices;
- And Gov. Gavin Newsom recently announced a $50 million state contract with generic drug company Civica Rx to manufacture three types of cheap biosimilar — or generic — insulin for diabetic Californians.
This three-pronged approach isn’t perfect — measures like the ones suggested by lawmakers this year have failed several times — but legislators are hopeful the resources of usual opponents will be divided among the state’s other efforts. Health economists and patient advocates believe the state’s lawsuit will lift the veil on opaque pricing…
Read the full article here
