Two life sciences powerhouses are coming together to develop an off-the-shelf beta cell replacement therapy for insulin-dependent diabetes patients, which they hope will become a functional cure for both types of the disease.
The Arkansas attorney general on May 11 accused drugmakers and pharmacy benefit managers of colluding to drive up the price of insulin drugs, the latest in a series of lawsuits to take aim at skyrocketing costs for the life-sustaining medicine.
U.S. lawmakers attempting to cut the cost of insulin for more than a million Americans to $35 per month are unlikely to succeed as November elections draw near and complicate bipartisan support, health policy and political experts say.
The high cost of insulin to treat diabetes would be drastically reduced under legislation the U.S. House of Representatives passed on March 31, in a rare example of drug price reform gaining traction in Congress.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on March 22 he intends to hold votes this spring on a bill that would cap the cost of insulin, a life-sustaining diabetes drug.
Civica Rx announced the organization’s intentions to manufacture and distribute insulins that will be available to individuals with diabetes at lower prices than those presently on the market.
Novo Nordisk on Feb. 2 rejected allegations by a U.S. congressional investigative committee that the company has engaged in maneuvers to increase net prices on life-saving insulin in tandem with its competitors on the U.S. insulin market.
More than 100,000 Americans died from diabetes in 2021, marking the second consecutive year for that grim milestone and spurring a call for a federal mobilization similar to the fight against HIV/AIDS.
Drugmakers have targeted the U.S. market to earn outsized profits from old medicines, according to a report released on December 10 by the House Oversight Committee that highlighted Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi, which control the market for insulin.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals announced positive Day 90 data from the first patient in the company’s Phase I/II study of VX-880 in type 1 diabetes (T1D). The therapy is a stem cell-derived, fully differentiated pancreatic islet cell replacement therapy.