More than a dozen pharmaceutical companies and pharmacy benefit managers artificially boosted insulin prices at the expense of diabetic Pennsylvanians, state officials say.<\/p>\n
Attorney General Dave Sunday accused several insulin manufacturers and PBMs, which handle prescription drug plans for medical insurers, of colluding to inflate the cost of insulin by more than 1,000% in a lawsuit filed Friday. This scheme affected 1.3 million Pennsylvania residents with diabetes and 3.5 million with prediabetes, the suit alleges, and forced many to ration their insulin or “starve themselves to control their blood sugar.”<\/p>\n
MORE:\u00a0Raw milk consumption has become more popular, but a prominent medical group wants sales to be banned<\/a><\/p>\n Eli Lilly, Sanofi, Novo Nordisk, CVS Caremark, OptumRx and 14 others are named in the lawsuit.<\/p>\n According to the litigation<\/a>, pharma companies “dramatically” raised the price of their insulin products beginning in the mid-2000s, despite the drugs costing less than $2 to manufacture. Though nothing about the products themselves changed, the suit claims, the companies began charging $300 to $700, sometimes even more, for drugs that previously had cost consumers $20.\u00a0<\/p>\n The manufacturers then allegedly paid a portion of their profits to the PBMs for inclusion in their plans in a quid pro quo deal. Around 2012, the PBMs also began excluding one or more drugs that treat the same condition to boost their own cut of the profits, the lawsuit says.<\/p>\n “Because the PBM Defendants control which drugs are available for the\u00a0vast majority of Pennsylvania diabetics and because the price paid by nearly every\u00a0diabetic and payor is based on the artificially inflated list prices generated by\u00a0Defendants’ scheme, the Insulin Pricing Scheme directly harms every diabetic and\u00a0payor in Pennsylvania who purchases these life-sustaining drugs,” the court documents read.<\/p>\n Sunday is seeking restitution for affected patients and injunctive relief under the state’s consumer protection law, citing deceptive business practices. If a judge rules in his favor, the defendants also would have to pay $1,000 in civil penalties for every violation of the\u00a0Unfair Trade Practices\u00a0and Consumer Protection Law, and $3,000 for every violation involving a victim 60 or older.<\/p>\n Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner filed a similar lawsuit<\/a> against a nearly identical group of pharmaceutical companies and PBMs in 2024. That same year, drug manufacturers like Eli Lilly and Novodisk began slashing their prices<\/a> in response to significant backlash and federal pressure. The Inflation Reduction Act had already capped insulin costs at $35 per month for seniors on Medicare, starting in 2023.<\/p>\n Follow Kristin & PhillyVoice on Twitter: @kristin_hunt
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