THE RISING COSTS OF INSULIN By
Sanaa Imami Sophia Cariño
There are very few medicines more well-known than insulin, and for good reason. Insulin is an essential hormone that constantly controls glucose levels in the bloodstream. The hormone also is responsible for regulating glucose levels in the body’s liver, muscle, and fat cells. While insulin is produced naturally in the human body, people afflicted with diabetes are unable to produce adequate levels of insulin. Most diabetics need insulin in order to keep their blood sugar levels in check, so the hormone is synthetically produced by pharmaceutical companies to help them live life normally. However, due to significant price increases and noncomprehensive insurance plans, many diabetic Americans are unable to access this life-saving drug. While insulin is a commonplace medicine today, the drug wasn’t identified as a lifesaving tool until a hundred years ago. Insulin was first extracted and used by researchers Frederick Banting and Charles Best in 1921. The two originally determined
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that they could keep a diabetic dog with no insulin production capability alive by giving it insulin produced from another dog’s pancreas. From there, Banting and Best, along with J.B. Collip and John Macleod, produced a more refined version of insulin from the pancreata of cattle. The first insulin injection was given to a diabetic teen named Leonard Thompson, and within 24 hours of injection, his formerly life-threateningly high blood glucose levels dropped to a normal amount. From there, pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly began to mass-produce insulin, and by 1923, the drug was widely-available across North America. The availability of insulin was life-changing for diabetics — prior to the production of the drug, most diabetics were put on restrictive low-calorie and low-carb diets that rarely helped them control their glucose levels. Oftentimes, diabetics would die from starvation rather than extreme blood sugar levels. Some of the most common insulin brands, like Humalog
and Admelog (both of which were insulin lispro, or artificially produced insulin), were originally produced in the 1990s. Since their creation, their prices have increased exponentially. For example, the original price of one vial of Humalog was $21. Twenty years later, in 2019, the same amount costs $332, which is an increase of over 1000%. While inflation naturally causes all goods to increase in price, this sharp increase is much more severe. In comparison, prices in other developed countries have remained roughly the same, even as inflation and production costs have changed throughout the years. Ultimately, the added financial barrier in acquiring insulin has dramatically changed how diabetic Americans are able to live their lives, especially when compared to other countries where the drug is more accessible. What are the reasons for this drastic increase in insulin price for Americans? There are two main issues, both of which boil down to the pharmaceutical companies developing these drugs. There are
