![\"contact](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/contact-marlena.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe move is similar to many other active lawsuits across the state and country. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost sued Express Scripts and Prime Therapeutics in 2023 for illegally driving up drug prices. Express Scripts, CVS Caremark and OptumRx together control 96% of the global market for insulin. <\/p>\n
We reached out to all six companies named in the lawsuit, asking for their response to the claims. You can read the responses we received below. <\/p>\n
“While we will not comment on the specifics of the allegations, Sanofi\u2019s pricing practices have always complied with the law and the company is committed to helping patients access the medicine they need at the lowest possible price. Following through on that commitment requires Sanofi to navigate a complex environment. Under the current system, savings negotiated by health insurance companies and PBMs through rebates are not consistently passed through to patients in the form of lower co-pays or coinsurance. As a result, patients\u2019 out-of-pocket costs continue to rise while the average net price of our insulins declines. Sanofi believes that no one should struggle to pay for their insulin, regardless of their insurance status or income level, which is why we have a suite of innovative and patient-centric savings programs to help people reduce their prescription medicine costs.”<\/p>\n
Sanofi<\/p>\n
\u201cPharmaceutical companies alone are responsible for the prices they set in the marketplace for the products they manufacture. Nothing in our agreements prevents drug manufacturers from lowering the prices of their insulin products and we would welcome such an action. Allegations that we play any role in determining the prices charged by manufacturers for their products are false, and we intend to vigorously defend against this baseless suit.\u201d<\/p>\n
CVS Caremark<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the only three cases where insulin pricing allegations have been put to their proof, the plaintiffs have either dropped their case, lost their motion to proceed as a class action, or settled for no money.\u00a0 These outcomes speak for themselves.\u00a0Lilly has been working for years to reduce insulin out-of-pocket costs for people with diabetes, against the headwinds of those\u2014like parties filing these lawsuits\u2014that benefit from rebates and choose higher list-price medicines over lower-priced options. Lilly was the first company to cap what patients pay at $35 per month for all of our insulins, we cut insulin prices by 70%, and in 2024 the average monthly out-of-pocket cost for Lilly insulin was less than $15.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eli Lilly<\/p>\n
“For many years, Optum Rx has aggressively and successfully negotiated with drug manufacturers and taken additional actions to lower prescription insulin\u00a0costs for our health plan customers and their members, who now pay an average of less than $18 per month for insulin. PBMs, like Optum Rx, are the key counterweight to pharmaceutical companies\u2019 otherwise unchecked monopoly power to set and raise drug prices.” <\/p>\n
Optum Rx<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CINCINNATI \u2014 A new lawsuit filed by Hamilton County accuses multiple drug manufacturers and pharmacy benefit managers of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":462439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[53998,3410,97,252,253,3412],"class_list":{"0":"post-462438","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-care","8":"tag-9-on-your-side","9":"tag-cincinnati-news","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-health-care","12":"tag-healthcare","13":"tag-wcpo"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}