Here’s one good way to lower cost of insulin

Insulin has been making life better for people with diabetes since it first saved the life of a Canadian teenager in 1922. As the ensuing century passed, however, the drug also became a poster child for the dysfunctionality of America’s drug-pricing system.
More than 10 million Americans rely on insulin to control their blood sugar, and the out-of-pocket cost of newer versions ranges from free (for some insured patients) to many hundreds of dollars a month (for insured and uninsured alike). Insulin has become unaffordable for many — leading some people with diabetes to resort to substituting older, less effective formulations, rationing, or forgoing treatment altogether, which can be a deadly choice.
Two distinct efforts to solve this problem are in the works — one from President Joe Biden’s administration and the other from a small nonprofit generic drug firm. Both strategies would improve patient access to insulin and bring greater transparency to drug prices. But the nonprofit idea will probably do a better job of actually bringing down the price.
Biden’s plan, which he presented during last week’s State of the Union address, would cap patients’ out-of-pocket costs for insulin at $35 a month. Members of Congress from both parties support the idea — though it hinges on the president’s dwindling chances of pushing through his partisan Build Back Better spending bill.
Even if Biden were to get his price cap, the benefits would accrue only to people who have health insurance. And it would not lower the price of the drug, but only pass the cost along to insurers. That could ultimately translate into higher insurance premiums for pretty much everyone.
“You really have to bring the price down — not just the consumer’s portion of the price,” says Gerard Anderson, a health policy expert at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Enter Civica Rx, which is trying to do just that. The nonprofit will make three insulin biosimilars — essentially generic versions of the long-acting treatment Lantus and the fact-acting insulins Humalog and Novolog — and offer them at one set price: $30 per vial or $55 for a set of five pen cartridges.

—Bloomberg