Worth a watch
https://www.wsj.com/articles/insulin-quest-when-lifesaving-drugs-are-out-of-reach-1543833037
(Why do links sometimes have nice captioned links and sometimes just the url?
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Just thought I’d also throw out the link to the Open Insulin Project, referenced in that video. I’ve been in touch with that team and am apart of their group on Google, but Oakland is just a bit far for me to really get my hands in on the lab work. One of these days I do want to go check it out though!
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I followed the development of afrezza pretty closely… gives me a pretty grim outlook on the big 3 insulin makers giving up their stranglehold on the market without a fight…
I do think there is some validity to what they say though when they point out that yes although the “list price” is absolutely absurdly high, the net price that’s a that’s actually being paid is much less…
I wish our lawmakers would recognize that as a form of deceptive marketing and pass some laws to address the pbm rebate nonsense
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That’s why I love the idea of making my own insulin in my garage with my tinfoil hat on. What can they do about that? Nothing. Insulin prices go up? No insurance? Zombie apocalypse? Great, I’ll just keep tending to my lil flask of yeast…
Two big hurdles the Open Insulin team hasn’t really addressed thus far to my knowledge is a cheap purification method and a means of testing their insulin (aside from on yourself), but there are tons of kinks to be ironed out in that project before they even get to those steps.
But yeah the whole PBM rebate thing needs some sort of regulation asap.
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While I don’t hold out hope for it happening soon, the easiest thing to do would be for all government purchasers i.e. Medicare, Medicaid, VA etc to combine their purchasing power and negotiate for the best price and publish it. Then insurers would have the benchmark they need to negotiate their price, and the PBM thing will go away naturally. No need to create new regulations, they always have unintentional consequences. But the light of day is hard to ignore.
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I’m not convinced that having a nice Medicare price would starve the PBM. I’d expect the PBM to negotiate a deal with one of the insulin manufacturers to state a list price that enables the PBM to get the vigorish while leaving room to give the Medicare price to the insurance company — in exchange for making that insulin the only one in the formulary. Kind of like exactly what they’re doing now.
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