Tag Archives: Eli Lilly

Off to college with CDN!

April 13, 2017 – 9:22 am

One of the most impressive developments in the diabetes community in the last several years has been creation of the College Diabetes Network. As of this writing, CDN has established chapters that support students living with diabetes at 112 colleges and universities.

Their website is a treasure trove of information, on everything from preparing for college, to life on campus, to relationships, to student’s rights, and more. If I’m living with diabetes in the USA, and I’m going to college soon, I want to become a CDN member.

And if you are that person, or one of your kids is a young adult who will be transitioning to college campus life soon, there are a couple of really great resources available right now.

College Diabetes Network has produced booklets for students and parents that are designed to help them through the changeover from high school to university. These booklets are great for wrapping your head around everything you need to consider ahead of time. If you’re like me, there are probably a few items in there that you haven’t thought of yet.

But that’s no problem… because you can get your hands on the student guide or the parent’s guide (or both), absolutely free. Put together in part through a grant from Eli Lilly & Company (thank you insulin maker!), you’re going to want to have these in your hands, whether you’re headed to a campus with a CDN chapter or not.

CLICK HERE to go to the CDN website, where you’ll get a preview of the guides and a chance to request one of your own.

So to review: free guide full of useful information to help you begin life at college while living with diabetes. Sounds like a winner to me. To get all of the information, and to find out more about College Diabetes Network, CLICK HERE. Good luck!

By StephenS | Posted in Support | Also tagged , | Comments (2)

I need to write a letter.

February 4, 2016 – 9:11 am

A little noise came about earlier in the week when people noticed that the stock price of Eli Lilly & Company, a large producer of insulin, had slipped six percent in a single day due to concerns that complaints of price gouging could ultimately hurt their bottom line. According to the Nasdaq report, the price of Humalog increased 10% just in the past quarter alone.

A lot of people focused on a quote from Lilly’s CEO, John Lechleiter, who, in the company’s quarterly conference call, when asked about the big increase in the price of Humalog, said that while the treatment is costly, the disease itself is a “lot more expensive.” Well, thanks a lot for that. Part of why it is expensive is because of Humalog. I think that’s what he was saying there, right? The disease itself is a “lot more expensive”, so the price of Humalog shouldn’t be a concern then, m’kay?

But it was a similar comment on the call from Jan Lundberg, Ph.D., Executive Vice President of Science and Technology, and President of Lilly Research Laboratories, that made me cringe the most. He was asked by an analyst about the “drug pricing debate”, the upcoming elections in the USA this November, how he had mentioned earlier that the industry was beginning to defend itself regarding pricing, and how he sees it all playing out over the next few years. Here is part of his response:
 
 
“In terms of what we can expect after the election, anybody that thinks they can predict the nominations, much less the election right now, I would love to talk to them. But I think this is going to continue to be an issue, or it’s going to continue to be on the radar screen because of demographics. And to some extent, as people get older, they are going to be more and more reliant on our medicines. I think we’ve got to continue to demonstrate that there’s value in the medicines we bring. Yes, they can be expensive, but disease is a lot more expensive. And emphasize the fact that low-cost generics, which account for over four out of five prescriptions today, represent ultimately the legacy of these investment efforts on our part, and provide the American consumer with tremendous value. So I think you can assume the industry is going to continue to maintain an active dialogue with each of the candidates, and to work across party lines to make sure that the views that ultimately translate into policy — and that’s what we’ve really got to be focused on — remain balanced and factual over time.”
 
 
Last time I checked, there were still no generic insulins available on the market, nearly 100 years after the discovery and implementation of insulin as a means to keep People With Diabetes alive.

Just trying to remain balanced and factual here, folks.

So, that really bothers me… the clearly false dialogue that it’s okay to overcharge patients for drugs they cannot do without, because there will eventually be generics available, which there won’t. Ever, without a fundamental change in policy at the governmental level. For heaven’s sake, Humalog was approved for use in the USA nearly 20 years ago.

That’s the frustration. What can I do about it?

I don’t know if there’s much I can do about it at all. But I know what will make me feel better. I need to write a letter.

I say a letter because on the Eli Lilly website, there is not one single e-mail address available. But they did publish the address of the home office in Indianapolis.

Do you want to write a letter too? Does this comment bother you enough to voice your concern?

Address it to:
Jan Lundberg
Lilly Corporate Center
Indianapolis, Indiana 46285 USA

Use your words. Tell your story. Be fair. Be kind. Above all, speak from the heart.

I will be putting together my own message, which I’ll share once it’s sent. I don’t know if it will do any good, but I know it will make me feel better. And it can’t hurt.

It should be noted that Eli Lilly & Company provides a lot of insulin to the IDF’s Life for a Child Programme, which also is helped through donations to Spare a Rose, Save a Child. So we’re on the same team there. Lilly helps provide assistance for people having trouble meeting the cost of their medicines. All initiatives that deserve praise.

They also have an executive who made a disingenuous comment on their most recent quarterly conference call, and that should be noted as well.
 

By StephenS | Posted in Advocacy | Also tagged , , , | Comments (4)

What has to happen?

September 4, 2015 – 9:18 am

I’ve wanted to ask this question, and know the answer to it, for a long time, even before I started blogging:

Why does the cost of insulin continue to skyrocket?

What I’ve found out so far is very little. At least very little that allows me to point my finger in a definite direction and say “this is why”. It’s complicated, and if I were to begin to point a finger in a particular direction, that’s where I would start. We can’t find the forest of cash for the trees.

The information on drug research, side effects, production costs, costs to file with regulatory authorities like the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, efforts to build marketing campaigns and pay sales reps to visit endocrinology practices is…. Non-existent. Nobody knows how much it costs to bring a new insulin onto the market (and keep it selling), and depending on how each phase of research, development, and rollout goes, the costs might vary.

Let’s not forget about the rest of the overhead. In Novo Nordisk’s latest financial results, 11.2 percent of their 4 billion dollars in revenue from January through June went to administrative costs, which includes things like pay and benefits, but not only pay and benefits. That’s 448 million dollars.

That seems excessive. And maybe it is. Maybe it’s not. The point is, we don’t know what’s excessive and what’s not in a financial statement for a company that grossed 4 billion dollars in the first six months of the year and published all of its financial line items in a one page document.

Eli Lilly did a much better job, I thought, of detailing their latest quarterly financial statement, but then again, they’re on the other end of the spectrum, and I had to search a little to find Humalog sales listed in the 28 page statement. In case you’re wondering, it was $1.3 billion year-to-date. For a drug that’s nearly 20 years old. Even if it cost a billion dollars or more to develop and produce these drugs, they have certainly more than paid for themselves by now.

But let me back off here. Maybe I shouldn’t point at Lilly and Novo. It’s not just about how much money is being made.

Actually, it’s about the right of a patient to get medication they need to survive, at a price that won’t have to make them have to choose between staying healthy and putting food on the table. Make no mistake: As insulin gets more expensive, this type of decision is already being forced upon a growing number of People With Diabetes here in the USA.

How companies (by companies, I mean drug makers, insurance, hospitals, etc.) reach the point where they charge as much as they do, and we get closer to the breaking point budget-wise, is a matter of great confusion. I really don’t know if this is by design, or if I just don’t have a good handle on the numbers. Here’s what I know:

Insulin should be more affordable.

When I’m tasked with solving a problem like this, I often think back to when The Great Spousal Unit and I bought our house. We knew we were ready to buy, but we didn’t even know if we could even get a mortgage, let alone whether we could afford one. So my solution was to find out what needed to be done to buy a home, and complete each step along the way, until we either moved into our house or knew where we didn’t qualify.

So in this case, I begin with the overarching statement: Insulin should be more affordable. Now the idea is, what needs to be done to make insulin more affordable? What are the steps? Can they all be accomplished? If they can’t all be done, what can’t be done? Why? How do we break down the barriers? What would have to happen to make insulin more affordable?

Why is a drug discovered nearly a century ago more expensive than ever?

Why is a drug approved in 1996 more expensive today than it was when it was approved?

I don’t know if I will get anywhere. But I really want to have a better working knowledge on this subject. I don’t know how long it will take, but I’m going to try to find out as much as I can.

In the meantime, feel free to give me your knowledge, if any, on why the cost of insulin is getting farther and farther out of reach. I’ll let you know if I find out anything.
 
 
There are programs dedicated to helping those who have difficulty meeting the cost of insulin and other diabetes drugs and supplies. Including programs run by Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly & Co. Rather than re-inventing the wheel, I’ll refer you to this helpful post on the subject from Christel at The Perfect D:
Need Help with U.S. Diabetes Supplies and Medications?
 

By StephenS | Posted in Advocacy | Also tagged , , , , , | Comments (3)

A lot of zeros.

April 10, 2015 – 11:06 am

Like many, I’ve seen and heard the recent NPR story:
Why is insulin so expensive in the U.S.?

The story is based on research from Dr. Jeremy Greene from The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore (still trying to get an interview), where he is a professor of medicine and history of medicine. He did some research on the history and cost of insulin, and published his findings in The New England Journal of Medicine.

The truth is, we all know insulin is very expensive here. And we all have our own opinions on why we think insulin is expensive here (where are the generics?). After reading a few of these stories this week (because diabetes stories with an impact aren’t reported for months, then the same story is reported by everyone in a few days), and then reading comments below each piece, I started to become overwhelmed.

Partly, it was because of the numerous “facts” presented by commenters; and partly, it was because of the fact that I felt the really difficult questions haven’t been asked or answered on this yet. Regardless, I started to feel information overload coming on.

For me, when that happens, I usually try to pull back and simplify the subject at hand. I may not solve the problem this way, but it gives me a good starting point. So that’s what I did. I did some initial research into market share for the three big companies selling insulin in the States. I also researched how much insulin costs me, about how much I use on a monthly and yearly basis, and then I extrapolated that (which is fancy talk for multiplied) by the number of people taking insulin in the USA. I wanted to be conservative in my calculations.

This is not scientific… this is just designed to take a typical Type 1 customer (me), and consider the cost of the life-giving medication that I need every day. How much are me and my D-peeps, and our insurance providers, shelling out for insulin?

According to Dr. Greene’s research paper, there are currently 6,000,000 patients taking insulin in the United States.

I looked at the cost of insulin from my prescription provider for Lantus, Apidra, Novolog, Levemir, and Humalog. According to my prescription plan, the cost of a 100 unit insulin vial (my cost plus my employer’s cost) breaks down as follows:

Lantus (made by Sanofi-Aventis): $250.01
Apidra (also made by Sanofi): $204.56
Novolog (made by Novo Nordisk): $204.65
Levemir (also made by Novo): $250.01
Humalog (made by Eli Lilly & Co.): $204.01

Humalog is not my insulin of choice, but it’s the cheapest in the list, so let’s go with that as a benchmark. In fact, let’s just round that number down to $200.00 to make the math easier. And to make it even easier, let’s say that I use one 100 unit vial of insulin every month. At that rate:

$200.00 per month X 12 months per year = $2,400.00

Now, let’s go a bit further (but not too much), and multiply again:

$2,400 per year X 6,000,000 insulin users in the USA = $14,400,000,000

That’s a lot of zeros, people. And this is just the United States we’re talking about. In fact, research from 2013 suggested a worldwide insulin market of $21 billion dollars in that year alone. And we know that there aren’t any fewer people living with diabetes in this country, or around the world today.

But still, let’s take that conservative $14.4 billion number and break it down by market share across these three companies. Again, there is no way this is science, but it should give us some sort of ballpark estimate of the amount of gross revenue that Sanofi, Lilly, and Novo are generating. The only data I could find on market share goes back to 2011, and is contained HERE. Since that is all I have, that is what I’m going with. Again, I’m just ballparking here. I’m not trying to arrive at the actual-to-the-dollar accounting involved, because how could I? Here we go:

In 2011, Sanofi-Aventis had a 37% value share of the market. Of our $14.4 billion, that would be:
$5,328,000,000

In 2011, Novo Nordisk also had a 37% value share of the market. Of our $14.4 billion, that would be:
$5,328,000,000

In 2011, Eli Lilly had a 26% value share of the market. Of our $14.4 billion, that would be:
$3,744,000,000

Let’s be honest here, and recognize it takes lots of research and development, plus a lot of clinical trial testing, plus building out production of the drug, providing documentation to patients and doctors, and a lot of other things to bring a new insulin to market. What would that cost, exactly? A billion dollars? Two billion? If it cost three billion dollars for Lilly to bring Humalog, my lowest costing insulin to market, they almost certainly would have made a profit on their investment in one year alone. In this country alone.

You know, we still haven’t solved the “Why are there no generic insulins?” question. But really… why would there be? If you’re a director of one of these drug makers, or a shareholder, and you, or someone you love, doesn’t live with diabetes; or you can afford insulin regardless of the cost; why would you not want to fight tooth and nail to keep low cost alternatives out of the hands of patients?

This is where I like to remind people that making a profit is good… until it starts to affect someone’s well-being in a negative way. Then this practice must be stopped. Just like patients should trump proprietary, patients should also trump profit. Believe me… there is still plenty of money to be made.

Guess what? It costs a lot of money to buy insulin to stay alive too. I think… I hope… we can find a—dare I say it—Happy Medium here. I’ll be okay with drug companies making money on insulin, if they’ll be okay with me affording said insulin so I can stay alive. For a long time to come.
 
 
 

By StephenS | Posted in Healthcare | Also tagged , , , , | Comments (8)
%d bloggers like this: