Opinion | Let’s not mistake Eli Lilly’s insulin cap for altruism – By Hayes Brown (MSNBC) / Mar 2,2023
A combination of public pressure, state and federal caps, and looming competition in the insulin industry ultimately pushed the pharmaceutical giant.
Pharmaceutical mega-giant Eli Lilly announced Wednesday that it will place a cap of $35 a month on the out-of-pocket cost of the insulin it produces. The decision has drawn a lot of praise for the company, a major change compared to the previous thwacking it’s taken for wildly overcharging for the lifesaving drug.
But let’s not pretend this is some form of corporate altruism from Eli Lilly. Instead, it’s the best move available for a company caught in the middle of three pressure points: political and public outrage; policy shifts at the state and the federal levels; and looming competition in the market that has been a very long time coming
When insulin was discovered in the early 1920s, the inventors received an American patent, which they then sold to the University of Toronto for a grand total of $3. Not $3 million. Three dollars.) The university turned to Eli Lilly to produce the new drug in exchange for a one-year distribution monopoly. Since then, Lilly has become one of three major sources for insulin in the U.S., alongside France’s Sanofi and Denmark’s Novo Nordisk.
