Novo Nordisk Set to Decrease Prices of Insulin Products, the Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk announced on that it will reduce the U.S. list price of a few of its insulin medications by as much as 75%.
The new prices will go into effect on January 1, 2024, following in the footsteps of rival pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, which announced earlier this month that it would reduce the list price of some of its medications, notably Humalog, by 70% at the end of the year. Eli Lilly went even further, immediately capping the out-of-pocket price of all their insulin medications at $35 per month.
At the time, President Joseph Biden lauded Eli Lilly and urged other insulin manufacturers to follow in the company’s footsteps.
More than 90% of the U.S. insulin market is controlled by three companies: American Eli Lilly, Danish Novo Nordisk, and French Sanofi. Experts had anticipated that other insulin producers would follow Eli Lilly’s lead and announce changes in response to the company’s statement.
According to Stacie Dusetzina, a health policy teacher at Vanderbilt University, Novo doesn’t have anything to lose by following suit, because the competition for these drugs is quite high.
Sure enough, Novo Nordisk announced a 75% price cut for its popular insulins, NovoLog and NovoLog Mix 70/30, with a single vial now costing $72.34 and a pen retailing for $139.71.
Levemir will see a 65% price reduction, moving to $107.85 per vial and just under $162 per pen, according to the company. The price of Novolin has also dropped, to $91.09 for a pen and $48.20 for a vial.
Most people don’t pay the full retail price of a medicine; instead, their out-of-pocket expense is determined by their health insurance plan. According to a clause in the Inflation Reduction Act that took effect on January 1st, seniors’ out-of-pocket Medicare costs will be capped at $35 per month.
Those without health insurance or with high deductibles will benefit most from Novo Nordisk’s decision, according to Larry Levitt, the EVP for health policy at KFF.
The action on Tuesday was hailed by the diabetes activist group T1International as a huge victory for insulin users, but it was noted that this shouldn’t be the end of the road.
“A vial of insulin costs approximately between $3 and $6 to produce,” the group noted. “$72 for a single vial of NovoLog insulin is still too expensive, so we are keeping the pressure on to demand further reductions.”
From 2002 to 2013, the average price of insulin increased by nearly threefold, according to the American Diabetes Association. GoodRx, a company that monitors prescription pricing, distributes discounts, and runs a telemedicine platform, reports that the typical retail cost of insulin has increased by over 50% between 2014 and 2019.
According to the CDC, the number of individuals in the United States who have diabetes has more than doubled over the previous 20 years, rising to over 37 million. Almost 40% of the U.S. population, or 96 million people, have prediabetes, a condition characterized by blood sugar levels that are greater than normal but not severe enough to warrant a classification of type 2 diabetes.
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