Durbin takes shot at insulin price gouging
Senator submits federal bill as General Assembly takes action during veto session
Sen. Dick Durbin has joined the fight against high insulin prices with the federal End Price Gouging for Insulin Act, as a state bill to cap costs moves through the General Assembly. (One Illinois/Ted Cox)
By Ted Cox
U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin has joined the fight against rising insulin prices with a bill he calls the End Price Gouging for Insulin Act.
Durbin issued a news release Friday on the bill, co-sponsored by U.S. Sen. Jeff Markley of Oregon. It would call on U.S. drug companies to offer insulin, critical to many diabetics, at the average price of 11 other developed countries. Durbin pointed out that U.S. insulin patients are paying 10 times what Canada charges for the drug.
“It’s unconscionable that Americans are rationing their supplies of lifesaving insulin because the prices charged by Big Pharma are more than $300, while at the same time a consumer in Canada can pay a mere $37 a month for the same insulin,” Durbin said in a statement. “Our bill ensures American consumers in need of insulin are treated the same as other foreign countries that pay substantially less for this lifesaving drug.”
Durbin charged that Sanofi, maker of Lantus insulin, has manipulated the system by obtaining 45 so-called follow-on patents after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had approved the drug. Those new patents have served to limit competition and block generic drugs from being developed and marketed.
Earlier this year, Durbin joined in sponsoring the REMEDY Act, which would crack down on such patents. But the insulin price-gouging act would provide more immediate relief, if enacted, by compelling the U.S. pharmaceutical industry to match the average insulin prices in similar countries.
“The United States represents only 15 percent of the global insulin market, yet generates nearly half of pharma’s revenue on insulin,” the news release stated. “Lantus, a popular long-acting insulin, cost $35 when it was first introduced in 2001. Within the past few years, the price of Lantus vial has skyrocketed to more than $372, while that same exact drug was sold in France for $46, and $67 in Canada.
“When insulin was first invented a century ago, the researchers sold the patent to the University of Toronto for just $1 each, hoping that the drug would be used to save lives for everyone who needed it. But over the last decade, the list price for common insulin products in the United States has tripled, despite the fact that the products are essentially the same.”
The act would set a “reference price” by determining the median price for the drug in 11 countries: Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Canada, Australia, Spain, Netherlands, Switzerland, and Sweden. U.S. drug companies would have to meet that price for all U.S. citizens, no matter their health coverage.
Durbin cited statistics showing that one in four U.S. diabetics has rationed insulin, resulting in health complications and even death.
Earlier this month, Durbin also opposed the Trump administration’s new U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, or what he labels the North American Free Trade Agreement 2.0, over what a news release calls “a giveaway tucked into NAFTA 2.0 that will keep drug prices high for Americans” by strengthening those drug patents.
“For all the president's talk, this provision in this trade agreement is a Trojan-horse giveaway to Big Pharma at the expense of American patients,” Durbin said. “I guess we shouldn't be surprised, but I'll say this: if Members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans, House and Senate, are listening to the people they represent back home about the cost of prescription drugs, they won't fall for this new pharma fleece.”
Durbin is also pushing for drug prices to be disclosed in TV advertisements.
At the state level, earlier this year, Sen. Andy Manar of Bunker Hill and Rep. Will Guzzardi of Chicago joined in sponsoring Senate Bill 667, which would cap insulin costs at $100 a month for Illinois diabetics. The Senate passed the bill by a bipartisan 48-7 vote last week, and it’s set to go before the House when the General Assembly’s fall veto session resumes next week. Guzzardi, who’s chairman of the House Prescription Drug Affordability & Accessibility Committee, has set a hearing date for 3 p.m. Tuesday in the Stratton Building in Springfield.
“Illinois families deserve to have the peace of mind that comes with knowing their loved ones do not have to choose between putting food on the table and buying their prescription medication,” Manar said upon Senate passage of the bill.
“For over a million Illinois residents, insulin is an absolute necessity. Without it, they will die,” he added. “Pharmaceutical companies are leveraging that fact in order to maximize profits. It’s time we hold them accountable.”