{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://www.warren.senate.gov/oversight/reports/senators-warren-and-blumenthal-release-investigation-revealing-diabetes-patients-lack-of-access-to-lower-priced-insulin", "Senators Warren and Blumenthal Release Investigation Revealing Diabetes Patients' Lack of Access to Lower-Priced Insulin", "2019-12-16", "2019", "2019-12", "Democrat", "House", "MA", "Elizabeth Warren", "W000817", "www.warren.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "December 16, 2019\n\t\t\t Senators Warren and Blumenthal Release Investigation Revealing Diabetes Patients' Lack of Access to Lower-Priced Insulin \n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t \n\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n        \n\t\t\t\t Despite Promises, Eli Lilly's Less Expensive Authorized Generic \"Insulin Lispro\" Widely Unavailable in Pharmacies\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t Report\r\n(PDF)   Washington, D.C. - United States Senator Elizabeth Warren\r\n(D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP)\r\nCommittee, and Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) today released the findings\r\nof a months-long survey of nearly 400 pharmacies nationwide regarding the\r\navailability of pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly's authorized generic insulin,\r\n\"Insulin Lispro.\" The investigative report, Inaccessible Insulin:\r\nThe Broken Promise of Eli Lilly's Authorized Generic, concluded that Eli\r\nLilly's lower-priced, authorized generic insulin is widely unavailable in\r\npharmacies across the country, and that the company has not taken meaningful\r\nsteps to increase insulin accessibility and affordability. \"This report shows that pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly has not lived up\r\nto its promise to provide a lower-priced insulin to patients who need it,\"\r\nsaid Senator Warren. \"With rising prescription drug costs\r\nsqueezing families in every part of the country, Congress must bring drug\r\nprices down for consumers, hold drug companies accountable for needless price\r\nhikes, and encourage more competition in the prescription drug\r\nmarket.\" \"Our report shows that Eli Lilly has failed to deliver on its promise\r\nto put a more-affordable insulin product on the shelves,\" said\r\nSenator Blumenthal. \"Instead of giving patients access to its\r\ngeneric alternative, this pharmaceutical behemoth is still charging\r\nastronomical prices for a drug people require daily and cannot live without.\r\nCongress needs to step up and take action on skyrocketing drug prices.\" For many of the\r\nmore than 30 million Americans living with diabetes, insulin is an\r\nessential medicine that helps the body process glucose derived from food.\r\nWithout glucose (and the insulin necessary to process it), the human body\r\ncannot function properly. Three pharmaceutical companies -- Sanofi, Nordisk,\r\nand Eli Lilly --produce\r\nover 80% of the global insulin supply and have taken advantage of limited\r\nmarket competition by steadily increasing insulin prices, even though experts estimate\r\ndrug manufacturers could profitably produce insulin for $7 to $11 per patient\r\nper month. Little generic competition exists in the insulin market, further\r\ncontributing to increased prices. Patients, caregivers, and advocates have raised alarms about the\r\nlife-threatening insulin price increases. In response to this public pressure,\r\nmanufacturers have announced measures that they claim will help reduce\r\npatients' out-of-pocket drug costs-including the introduction of so-called\r\n\"authorized generics.\" Unlike true generics, which are produced by\r\ncompeting companies, authorized\r\ngenerics are the same drug sold by the original manufacturer at a slightly\r\ndiscounted price. In March 2019, Eli Lilly announced\r\nthat it would produce an authorized generic version of Humalog, \"Insulin\r\nLispro,\" and promised that it would \"work quickly with supply chain\r\npartners to make [the authorized generic] available in pharmacies as quickly as\r\npossible.\" However, in the months after Eli Lilly's announcement,\r\nanecdotal reports\r\nraised questions about the availability of \"Insulin Lispro\" in local\r\npharmacies. To assess the impact of authorized generics, like \"Insulin\r\nLispro,\" on patients' access to insulin, the offices of Senators Warren\r\nand Blumenthal conducted a national telephone survey of pharmacies to determine\r\nif they had access to, and were providing patients with, the lower-cost\r\nauthorized generic version of Humalog insulin. The investigation revealed: \r\n Eli Lilly's\r\n     authorized generic insulin, \"Insulin Lispro,\" is not widely\r\n     available in pharmacies across the country. In 83% of pharmacies\r\n     surveyed, the less expensive, authorized generic promised by Eli Lilly was\r\n     not in stock and available for consumers. In 14 states, not one of the up\r\n     to eight surveyed pharmacies had the generic version of the drug in stock;\r\n     in 17 states, the drug was only available in one surveyed pharmacy. And in\r\n     most cases (69%), pharmacies that did not have the generic drug in stock\r\n     indicated that they could not order the drug, even if the consumer did not\r\n     need it immediately.\r\n  \r\n Pharmacies are\r\n     unaware of, and not adequately informing consumers about, the availability\r\n     of Eli Lilly's authorized generic insulin. In many cases,\r\n     consumers cannot get the generic version of a drug if they do not know to\r\n     ask for it - and they rely on pharmacies to inform them when generics are\r\n     available. But this survey revealed that, even when pharmacies have the\r\n     authorized generic version of Humalog, they do not proactively offer it to\r\n     consumers. Only half of the limited number of pharmacies that had the\r\n     authorized generic in stock offered it as a first option for consumers. In\r\n     total, only 15% of pharmacies offered the authorized generic without\r\n     prompting. \r\n  \r\n Eli Lilly has not\r\n     taken meaningful steps to increase patient access to insulin. The\r\n     results of the survey suggest that Eli Lilly's introduction of a\r\n     lower-cost alternative has not translated to lower-costs for patients, who\r\n     are not able to access the authorized generic. Eli Lilly has failed to\r\n     take consequential steps -- such as simply lowering the list price of\r\n     Humalog, as it has in foreign markets -- to provide lower-cost access to\r\n     this important diabetes drug. \r\n The senators' report concluded by urging Eli Lilly to lower the list price\r\nof its insulin and calling for Congress to take steps to enact systemic change\r\nto reduce drug prices nationwide. A member of the Senate HELP Committee, Senator Warren has been a leading\r\nvoice in Washington calling for lower prescription drug prices since joining\r\nthe Senate in 2013. In December 2018, Senator Warren and Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.)\r\nintroduced the Affordable\r\nDrug Manufacturing Act, a bill that would allow the federal government to\r\ndevelop generic drugs -- including insulin -- in cases where the market has\r\nfailed. Senator Warren is a co-sponsor of the Medicare for All Act of 2019, a\r\nbill that would ensure that no family goes broke paying for prescription drugs.\r\nSenator Warren has also co-sponsored the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Act, a\r\nbill that would permit the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to\r\nnegotiate the prices of prescription drugs offered through the Medicare\r\nprogram; the Affordable and Safe Prescription Drug Importation Act, a bill that\r\nwould allow for the safe importation of drugs from countries like Canada; and\r\nthe Affordable Medications Act, a bill that would-among other\r\nprovisions-promote the development of generic drugs. ###\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t  \n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t \n\t\t\n\t\t\tPrint\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tEmail\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tTweet\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t \n\t\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n    \n\t\n\t\n    \n    \n    \n    \t\n    \t\n\t    \t  \n\t\t    \n\t\t    \n\t\t    \tPrevious Article", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://www.warren.senate.gov/oversight/reports/senators-warren-and-blumenthal-release-investigation-revealing-diabetes-patients-lack-of-access-to-lower-priced-insulin"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.865402165800333, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}