In this illustration, insulin pens manufactured by Novo Nordisk are displayed on March 14, 2023 in Miami, Florida.
Joe Raedle | beautiful pictures
The bipartisan Senate bill introduced Friday would cap the price of insulin at $35 per month for those with private insurance.
The billdrafted by Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, DH, and Susan Collins, R-Maine, arrive two months after the President Joe Biden called on Congress in her State of the Union speech to extend the insulin price cap to millions of people with diabetes with private insurance.
“Americans living with diabetes and those who love them can’t wait for Congress to act — the time has come,” Shaheen and Collins said in a statement.
“We are calling on Senate leadership to bring this bill to the floor for consideration as quickly as possible.”
The Biden Inflation Act, which became law last year, capped the price of insulin at $35 a month for seniors with Medicare.
But efforts to include people with private insurance failed in Congress last year due to Republican opposition.
More than 2 million diabetics on insulin are privately insured, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.
About 150,000 patients taking insulin do not have insurance, according to HHS.
March, Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk And sanofi announced it would reduce the prices of its most widely used insulin products in response to growing public pressure to tackle rising costs.
According to HHS, these three pharmaceutical companies control 90% of the global insulin market.
Shaheen and Collins say Congress needs to step in and set a price ceiling under the law to make sure insulin is affordable for patients.
“We are encouraged by the proactive steps taken by private companies, but it is the drop in action needed to bring prices down across the board and keep them there,” the senators said. “.
The law would require private insurance plans beginning January 2024 to limit the rate patients pay to no more than $35 per month and waive deductibles for at least one of each insulin and dosage forms.
Types of insulin include rapid, short, medium and long acting, as well as premix. Dosage forms include vials, pens and inhalers.
In 2025, the law will limit the amount a patient must pay to the lower of two possible rates — $35 per month or 25% of the manufacturer’s list price.
The bill also aims to curb pharmaceutical benefit managers, who mediate drug prices with drug manufacturers on behalf of health insurance plans.
Although pharmacy benefit managers are supposed to negotiate lower prices, they have come under close scrutiny for pocketing some of the discounts and rebates they receive from manufacturers.
Senate legislation would require pharmacy benefit managers to transfer 100% of the discounts and rebates they negotiate on manufacturers’ insulin list prices to health insurance companies, which could can help reduce insurance premiums for patients.
The bill would also give the Food and Drug Administration the power to accelerate the approval of biologic products like insulin that are similar to branded products, which could help increase competition and lower prices.
So far, the FDA has approved only two insulins — rezvoglar and semglee — that are interchangeable with brand-name products. They are manufactured by Lilly and Mylan Pharmaceuticals, respectively.
