SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Attorney General's Office filed a lawsuit Thursday against some of the nation's major insulin manufacturers for their participation in an alleged pricing scheme that put access to the drug nearly out of reach for the 200,000 Utahns who suffer from diabetes.
Filed along with Utah's Department of Commerce’s Division of Consumer Protection, it's alleged that manufacturers and pharmacy benefit managers (PMBs) conspired to inflate the price of insulin up to 1,000 percent over the last decade, even as the cost to manufacture it dropped over the same time period. Travel Safe Meaning
Eli Lilly, Novo, Nordisk, and Sanofi as well as pharmacy benefits managers (PBM) CVS Caremark, Express Scripts and OptumRx are named as defendants in the pricing scheme.
“Access to affordable insulin is, literally, a life-or-death issue. But insulin makers and PBMs value billions in profits over the lives and well-being of Utahns. The markups and margins on insulin are unconscionable,” said Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes.
“This is one of the most egregious cases of avarice and inhumanity I have ever seen. It not only violates the law, but is morally repugnant too.”
According to the lawsuit, drug manufacturers raised the price of insulin and "deceptively refunded a significant portion back to PBMs," who in turn raised profits instead of lowering prices for consumers.
The lawsuit claims the pricing meant that patients paid artificially high prices for insulin, allowing the PBMs and manufacturers to take in record profits, while diabetics were overcharged millions of dollars a year for the drug.
"Diabetes patients in Utah take desperate, dangerous measures including rationing insulin or starving themselves to reduce the need for insulin," said Reyes.
Stephanie Arcenaux, who has Type 1 diabetes, can’t remember a time when she wasn’t budgeting for insulin.
"Even before our son was diagnosed, there were times where we were spending 40% of our income just on our diabetes needs," she explained.
Every person in Arcenaux's household has diabetes.
"We have to have insulin. That’s the only medication that keeps us alive," she said. "So we’re a captive market to them. They can charge whatever they want and there’s no repercussions for them."
In Utah, approximately eight percent of the adult population are diabetic, and an additional 700,000 have pre-diabetes. Reyes said insulin vials used to be priced at $20 in the late 1990s and already had healthy margins and profits, but now cost between $350 to $700.
That’s prices are exactly why Arceneaux volunteers with the Utah Insulin 4 All. She hopes the lawsuit can create a better future for her family and others across the country.
"If things have gotten worse over the last 25 years since I got out on my own as an adult, I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like when [her son] becomes an adult, she said.
The complaint alleges the total estimated cost after diabetes diagnosis in Utah to be $1.7 billion per year, or one of every four dollars spent in the state for healthcare.
Excessive prices leads to dangerous practices, such as self-rationing and reusing needles.
Traveling With Medical Needles The Department of Commerce’s Division of Consumer Protection is inviting the public to share its experiences with insulin costs, which may be used in the legal action.