(Reuters) -Eli Lilly and Co on Wednesday said it will cut list prices by 70% for its most commonly prescribed insulin products, Humalog and Humulin, beginning from the fourth quarter of this year.
The Indianapolis-based drugmaker also will lower the price of its Lispro insulin injection to $25 a vial and expand its insulin value program so that an existing $35 cap on some insulins will now apply in about 85% of U.S. pharmacies.
The move comes as U.S. President Joe Biden has pushed to extend to most Americans the $35 cap on out-of-pocket insulin costs available to recipients of the government’s Medicare health program, a move some lawmakers have also said they would support with legislation.
“While we could wait for Congress to act or the healthcare system in general to apply that standard, we’re just applying it ourselves,” Chief Executive Dave Ricks told CNN in an interview.
Eli Lilly, along with Sanofi and Novo Nordisk make up 90% of the U.S. market for insulin. Lilly shares were up 1.6% at $316.14.
Biden, a Democrat, on Tuesday called on Congress and other manufacturers to lower the price of insulin as Lilly had done. Sanofi and Novo were not immediately available for comment.
Ricks said in a media call that he had not spoken to the Biden administration about the change before it was announced, but that he had previously talked to lawmakers trying to cap insulin costs, including Republican U.S. Senator Susan Collins.
The list price for Lispro, a cheaper version of its Humalog insulin, is currently $82.41 for 100 units/mL vials. A Humalog U-100 10 mL vial is $274.70, which will drop to $66.40, and a Humulin U-100 10 mL vial is $148.70. That will become $44.61.
Lilly last year said it would lower Lispro’s price by 40% for some consumers.
List prices for drugs often differ from what patients actually pay, including after insurance and other assistance programs.
While the $35 price is only available in pharmacies participating in the company’s insulin value program, Ricks said patients using other pharmacies can receive a rebate through the drugmaker’s website.
These price cuts “should be the new standard in America,” the CEO said, and he called on other companies and stakeholders “to meet us at this point.”
“Insulin has become such a pivotal issue because of affordability,” Ricks said.
Around 8.4 million of the 37 million people in the United States with diabetes use insulin, according to the American Diabetes Association.
Ricks said the company’s insulin price cuts had been planned for some time and were accounted for in Eli Lilly’s December financial forecast, which projected 2023 revenue of at least $30.3 billion.
(Reporting by Bhanvi Satija in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Patrick Wingrove and Susan Heavey, Editing by Arun Koyyur and Bill Berkrot)
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