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Indianapolis #insulin4all Demonstration: Stop Price Gouging People with Diabetes!

Indianapolis #insulin4all Demonstration: Stop Price Gouging People with Diabetes!

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WHAT: Demonstration in front of Eli Lilly and Company international corporate headquarters in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana. For more info and updates, join the Facebook event.

WHEN: Saturday, September 9th at 1-3pm

Can't make it to Indianapolis but want to do something? Join our online day of action on September 8th. 

WHY: People with diabetes are speaking out against the outrageous prices of a medication that is necessary for survival. We are asking Eli Lilly to be transparent about the costs of manufacturing insulin and the enormous profits it is making on the medicine, and to commit to stopping the immoral act of price gouging people who depend on this medicine for survival. Our asks to Eli Lilly are as follows:

  • Be transparent about how much it costs to make one vial of Humalog insulin
  • Be transparent about your profits from each vial
  • Lower the price of insulin

We have created some talking points for you in a PDF. 

BACKGROUND: Insulin, an essential medicine, was first used to treat a person with diabetes in 1922 and the discoverers intended it to be accessible for all. Now, almost 100 years later, the cost of insulin is increasingly unaffordable for people living with diabetes in the USA, causing people to ration insulin and skip injections. High prices are leading to bankruptcy and even death.

Eli Lilly and Company is one of three manufacturers of insulin. In near lock-step with the other two manufacturers, Lilly has raised the price of its version of insulin by over 300% over the past seven years. A U.S. patient’s out-of-pocket cost for a month’s supply of Eli Lilly’s Humalog can be over $400.

Although manufacturers like Eli Lilly keep the cost of insulin production a tightly-guarded secret, U.S. prices are likely hundreds of times higher than the expense of making the drug. Patients in the U.S. and internationally have died due to inability to afford insulin, and physicians report seeing an increasing number of insulin-deprived patients coming into emergency rooms in crisis. As many as half of those who need insulin cannot reliably get access to it.

The insulin price increases have been called “price gouging, plain and simple” by U.S. Senators and a “racket” by an endocrinologist writing in the New York Times. The insulin manufacturers’ mirror-image insulin price increases have triggered a class-action lawsuit alleging collusion insulin manufacturers.

SPONSORING ORGANIZATIONS:

T1International, PFAM, and Public Citizen logos

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