Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders has called the executives of top insulin manufacturers to testify before his panel.
He also announced that the CEOs of Eli Lilly and Company, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi—the largest three insulin manufacturers in the United States—will testify.
“As a result of public outrage and strong grassroots efforts, major pharmaceutical companies recently announced that they would be substantially reducing the price of insulin,” Sanders said.
That was in part due to an information mix-up following billionaire Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter. Musk temporarily made “blue check marks,” which indicate that an account represents a recognized brand or person, available to all users for a small monthly fee.
One user exploited the program to falsely portray their account as that of Eli Lilly. In a post purporting to be the company, the unknown user announced that all insulin would be free moving forward.
After the post gained massive traction, tanking Eli Lilly’s stock value, the company agreed to cut the cost of insulin.
Sanders called that “an important step forward.”
But he added, “We must make certain ... that those price reductions go into effect in a way that results in every American getting the insulin they need at an affordable price. But that’s not all. We have got to substantially lower the price of all prescription drugs. The United States cannot continue to pay, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs, while drug companies ... make billions in profits. That’s what this hearing is all about.”
When insulin was discovered by Sir Frederick G. Banting in 1921, he sold off the rights to the drug for $1—pennies of what it was worth.
Banting explained his decision to give away the patent. “Insulin does not belong to me, it belongs to the world,” he said.
Prior to the discovery of insulin, diabetes was a death sentence. But since Banting’s discovery of the miracle chemical, its price has risen far beyond that dreamed of by Banting.
To pull this coup off, pharmaceutical companies realized that, while the drug itself could not be patented, the dispenser could. Without the specialized dispensers, insulin must be constantly cooled to avoid the chemical breaking down; the dispensers also do away with the need for large, painful needles to deliver the drug.
In May 2020, President Donald Trump announced an executive action that would cap the cost of insulin at $35 a month out of pocket for many seniors on Medicare. President Joe Biden reversed the order not long after taking office as part of a larger effort to reverse almost all of Trump’s executive orders.
Now, progressive Democrats say that capping the cost of insulin at around $35 a month is a top priority.
