Photo courtesy Civica Rx
An announcement in March that Eli Lilly and Co. will cap out-of-pocket costs of its insulin at $35 per month comes amid state and federal pressure on the issue of drug affordability.
According to data provided by the White House, nearly 27 million Americans ages 18 and older are estimated to have been diagnosed with diabetes, which includes nearly 650,000 Virginians, or 9.5% of the commonwealth’s population. The federal Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 established a $35 monthly cap per prescription for insulin covered by a Medicare prescription drug plan and insulin delivered through traditional pumps.
South of Richmond, plans are underway to provide insulin at even lower costs.
Civica Rx, a Utah-based nonprofit, is building an insulin production plant in Petersburg with the goal of starting retail sales in 2024, and a laboratory testing facility in Chesterfield County is expected to soon follow that same year. A spokesperson for Civica Rx says they see Eli Lilly taking “a positive and commendable step in the right direction,” but that “Civica’s plans remain the same.”
Those plans are to produce in Petersburg three insulins, glargine, lispro and aspart, for a cost no higher than $30 per vial and $55 for a box of five prefilled pens. The plant will be capable of filling 90 million vials and 50 million pre-filled syringes per year.
The private-sector changes follow those made by the Virginia legislature. A 2021 law capped co-pays for insulin at $50 for a 30-day supply. A 2022 bill to offer an insulin discount program and cap co-pays at $30 was rejected, and a plan to create the Prescription Drug Affordability Board to protect Virginians “from the high costs of prescription drug products” failed in 2023.
Among the related legislation that has passed in the 2023 session is a bill that allows pharmacists to refill prescriptions for insulin without authorization in emergencies and another that exempts insulin from restrictions on the distribution of hypodermic needles and syringes.
