- Joined
- Jan 17, 2010
- Messages
- 4,882
- Reaction score
- 5,974
Pharmaceutical companies are slashing insulin production in favour of more lucrative weight-loss drugs.
By Andy Hirschfeld
Published On 2 May 20242 May 2024
Skye Murphy, who is 22 years old, has lived with type 1 diabetes since she was 14. In the past month, she learned that there would be a 30-to-60-day delay in receiving her medication Humalog, an insulin drug made by Eli Lilly.
While announcing a shortage in March, Eli Lilly said several key insulin medications would be out of stock for several weeks, which, as reported by CNN, was because of a “brief delay in manufacturing”. The company has since scrubbed details on the shortage from the news release.
More than 38.4 million people in the United States have diabetes and rely on insulin for their survival. In context, that is more than the population of Tokyo, one of the world’s most populous cities.
Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly is one of three pharmaceutical companies that control the global insulin market. It competes with France’s Sanofi and Denmark’s Novo Nordisk. But Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly are of particular note. The two companies control 75 percent of the global market – and both have insulin shortages impacting people who rely on the medication.
That includes Murphy. She is down to her last vial and is having to ration her dosages just in case she can’t find a refill. She spent nearly a day calling pharmacies all over the Chicago metro area where she lives to find a dose, but has yet to locate one.
“I’ve been on this certain insulin for eight years now. If I don’t get my medication, I could have hypoglycaemia, low blood sugar or high blood sugar or some other serious adverse reaction,” Murphy told Al Jazeera.
She says her insurance provider suggested she use generics in the meantime, but that worries her because it took years for her to find the right combination of medications that works for her.
Generic medications are not foolproof. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allows for an up to 20 percent variation in the active ingredients from the original formula. That’s a risk that Murphy is wary of taking.
In November, the Danish pharmaceutical giant announced it would phase out its long-lasting insulin injection Levemir. The drug will be fully discontinued by the end of 2024. At the time, the company said that because of the move, there would be supply-chain shortages starting this past year.
Levemir is now on the list of drug shortages.
But if the company controls most of the global insulin market, why slowly and quietly reduce offerings?
Over the last year, the White House touted its plan to cap insulin costs for consumers at $35. US President Joe Biden showcased the efforts in his recent State of the Union Address. Thanks to cooperation with several pharmaceutical giants including Eli Lilly, Sanofi and Novo Nordisk, prices tumbled.
Prices dropped by 70 percent for Eli Lilly, 75 percent for Novo Nordisk, and 78 percent for Sanofi.
But even as the price cap kicked in, a new study from Yale University published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) showed that pharmaceutical giants have been charging significantly more than it costs to produce the drug.
The study found that insulin pens – consumer-friendly self-administration devices that contain preset doses and typically hold around 3ml of the medicine – could be sold at a range between $50 and $111 annually.
This has been a problem across the pharmaceutical industry prior to the Biden administration’s move to cap insulin prices. Eli Lilly, for instance, charged as much as $274.70 for a single vial of Humalog U-100 10mL – one of its most popular medications.
Despite Novo Nordisk’s vocal move to back the Biden administration’s plan to cap prices, it has quietly reduced its portfolio of insulin medications.
Novo Nordisk’s 2023 annual report showed insulin sales dropped by 6 percent.
By Andy Hirschfeld
Published On 2 May 20242 May 2024
Skye Murphy, who is 22 years old, has lived with type 1 diabetes since she was 14. In the past month, she learned that there would be a 30-to-60-day delay in receiving her medication Humalog, an insulin drug made by Eli Lilly.
While announcing a shortage in March, Eli Lilly said several key insulin medications would be out of stock for several weeks, which, as reported by CNN, was because of a “brief delay in manufacturing”. The company has since scrubbed details on the shortage from the news release.
More than 38.4 million people in the United States have diabetes and rely on insulin for their survival. In context, that is more than the population of Tokyo, one of the world’s most populous cities.
Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly is one of three pharmaceutical companies that control the global insulin market. It competes with France’s Sanofi and Denmark’s Novo Nordisk. But Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly are of particular note. The two companies control 75 percent of the global market – and both have insulin shortages impacting people who rely on the medication.
That includes Murphy. She is down to her last vial and is having to ration her dosages just in case she can’t find a refill. She spent nearly a day calling pharmacies all over the Chicago metro area where she lives to find a dose, but has yet to locate one.
“I’ve been on this certain insulin for eight years now. If I don’t get my medication, I could have hypoglycaemia, low blood sugar or high blood sugar or some other serious adverse reaction,” Murphy told Al Jazeera.
She says her insurance provider suggested she use generics in the meantime, but that worries her because it took years for her to find the right combination of medications that works for her.
Generic medications are not foolproof. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allows for an up to 20 percent variation in the active ingredients from the original formula. That’s a risk that Murphy is wary of taking.
Price caps, reduced offerings
Novo Nordisk holds 54.8 percent of the global market, and one of its recent moves – slashing product offerings – is only fuelling a bigger shortage.In November, the Danish pharmaceutical giant announced it would phase out its long-lasting insulin injection Levemir. The drug will be fully discontinued by the end of 2024. At the time, the company said that because of the move, there would be supply-chain shortages starting this past year.
Levemir is now on the list of drug shortages.
But if the company controls most of the global insulin market, why slowly and quietly reduce offerings?
Over the last year, the White House touted its plan to cap insulin costs for consumers at $35. US President Joe Biden showcased the efforts in his recent State of the Union Address. Thanks to cooperation with several pharmaceutical giants including Eli Lilly, Sanofi and Novo Nordisk, prices tumbled.
Prices dropped by 70 percent for Eli Lilly, 75 percent for Novo Nordisk, and 78 percent for Sanofi.
But even as the price cap kicked in, a new study from Yale University published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) showed that pharmaceutical giants have been charging significantly more than it costs to produce the drug.
The study found that insulin pens – consumer-friendly self-administration devices that contain preset doses and typically hold around 3ml of the medicine – could be sold at a range between $50 and $111 annually.
This has been a problem across the pharmaceutical industry prior to the Biden administration’s move to cap insulin prices. Eli Lilly, for instance, charged as much as $274.70 for a single vial of Humalog U-100 10mL – one of its most popular medications.
Despite Novo Nordisk’s vocal move to back the Biden administration’s plan to cap prices, it has quietly reduced its portfolio of insulin medications.
Novo Nordisk’s 2023 annual report showed insulin sales dropped by 6 percent.
