Gregg County Health Authority discusses ‘exciting’ new cap on insulin price

LONGVIEW, Texas (KLTV) - Today Eli Lilly announced they would drop the price of their most commonly used insulin from $82 to $35 a vial for those who have private insurance. And that is very good news for diabetics.

Shakemia Roberts lives in Longview and is a diabetic. She takes insulin and wears an insulin transmitter.

“Every day. Twice a day. It’s outrageous the stuff we have to pay for it to maintain,” Roberts said.

Gregg County Health Authority Dr. Lewis Brown has noticed the price of insulin has steadily increased.

“(It) has continued to go up over the last twenty something years, and even more than that. You know it’s been around a hundred years,” Brown said.

He said Eli Lilly was first to manufacture insulin.

“The President said he was going to try to get the price down. This is the first signs that we heard of insulin actually being decreased,” Brown said.

Brown said he hopes other insulin manufacturers will follow suit.

“The short side of this is I think it’s going to be very beneficial for patients and very affordable,” Brown said. “Diabetes is increasing, increasing.”

And the American Diabetes Association said the price of insulin nearly tripled between 2002 and 2013, but this announcement will reign that price in.

“Thank you for the good news,” Roberts said.

It won’t make the stick less painful, but it will ease that pain in the wallet.

Eli Lilly said it will cut the price of its mealtime nonbranded insulin as of May 1, and cut back the price of its most commonly prescribed insulin, Humalog, by about 75 percent in the fourth quarter of this year.

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