More than 14 percent of US residents use insulin to manage their blood sugar levels. At the same time, however, it remains exceptionally expensive in the US. Why is it so? Well, let us figure it out together right away!
All You Need to Know About Insulin
Insulin is a medication that is used to manage diabetes mellitus. It functions as a solid substitution for the natural hormone produced in the human body to regulate the blood sugar levels of a patient.
On a side note:
Diabetes mellitus is a disease that affects the blood sugar levels within the human body. It has a chronic nature and needs to be managed on a regular basis.
Normally, the pancreas of the human body produces the hormone insulin that, in its turn, transfers the food-gained sugar from the blood to cells in order to transform it into energy. However, sometimes one of the following health conditions might occur:
- The pancreas does not produce enough insulin to keep the blood sugar levels within the normal range;
- The produced insulin does not function in a proper way.
When one of the above-mentioned health conditions occurs, a person usually develops diabetes mellitus, which, in its turn, might be divided into three main types:
- Type 1 diabetes;
- Type 2 diabetes;
- Gestational diabetes.
Each type of diabetes mellitus has its own properties. For instance, gestational diabetes usually occurs when a person is pregnant and disappears after giving birth. At the same time, type 2 diabetes might be successfully managed with the help of an active lifestyle, a healthy diet, and a normal weight.
The situation with type 1 diabetes, however, is not that optimistic. While occurring in about 10 percent of patients with diabetes mellitus, it has to be controlled with the help of insulin injections.
On a side note:
Before the invention of insulin, a vast majority of patients with type 1 diabetes had an exceptionally low life expectancy and were forced to stick to a diet not exceeding 500 calories a day.
There exist several drug companies that manufacture brand-name and generic insulin. The following pharmaceutical giants, however, are considered to be the only three manufacturers that play a crucial role in the contemporary market:
- Eli Lilly;
- Novo Nordisk;
- Sanofi;
- And so on.
These pharmaceutical companies do their best to produce affordable insulin products. According to recent statistics, they are the insulin manufacturers that occupy about 90 percent of the global insulin market.
On a side note:
Generic drugs might be defined as analogs of brand-name drugs that have the same chemical substance, dosage form, strength, and safety. Their main aim is to reduce average drug prices.
Depending on their periods of action, insulin medications might be divided into the following types:
- Short-acting insulin;
- Intermediate-acting insulin;
- Long-acting insulin;
- Ultra-long-acting insulin;
- And so on.
Depending on the individual peculiarities of diabetes patients, healthcare providers might prescribe them one of the above-mentioned insulin types or a combination of them.
On a side note:
Practically any insulin medication might appear in the form of a vial, pen, cartridge, pump, and so on.
About Insulin Costs Within and Outside the US
Despite being a life-saving medication, insulin is a pretty expensive drug. As a result, not each and every patient who needs it might afford it.
On a side note:
In most cases, the cost of insulin is not covered by private health insurance. It eventually leads to a great amount of money spent on insulin on a regular basis, even by privately insured patients.
The price of insulin is usually dependent on a wide range of factors, such as:
- The geographical location of a patient;
- The place where a patient is going to buy insulin;
- The brand of insulin a patient needs;
- The type of insulin a patient requires;
- The form of insulin a patient uses;
- And so on.
Under normal circumstances, the average price for one vial of regular insulin in the United States equals $250. While monthly expenses for insulin, in their turn, reach $1.500, which is practically unaffordable for many insulin users.
On a side note:
The high cost of insulin in the US is a life-threatening health care problem. There exist numerous cases when a patient with diabetes mellitus died from diabetic ketoacidosis because of being not capable of affording insulin.
There exist several reasons for the high costs of insulin in the US. Below, you will find the list of the main ones:
- Companies that produce insulin try to constantly improve their products for diabetes care and, therefore, prolong the life of their patients. Therefore, they spend huge budgets on their research, development of newer formulations, and implementation of the latest technologies (for instance, a recombinant DNA technology), which eventually leads to rising insulin prices;
- The government does not control the cost of drugs (including insulin pricing). In other words, pharmaceutical corporations that manufacture insulin and pharmacy benefit managers are allowed to push the boundaries in terms of the maximum price for the medication;
- There are not so many competing products to manage diabetes mellitus (for instance, biosimilar insulins). Namely, only three major pharmaceutical corporations produce the most well-known insulin solutions, which eventually leads to their market exclusivity and, as a result, soaring prices;
- And so on.
The combination of the above-mentioned factors has caused an insulin crisis and, related to it, supply chain problems in the US. Therefore, numerous state and federal lawmakers are currently working on possible solutions to ensure insulin access for all patients and provide the insulin system with incremental improvements.
On a side note:
Over the past decade, insulin expenses in the US have tripled. Moreover, the medication’s price increases from year to year, even today.
The situation with insulin outside the US, however, is completely different. For instance, neighboring Canada has substantially lowered the financial burden patients with diabetes mellitus have to face. It has become possible due to the strict price-cap regulation for medical products in the country.
On a side note:
Canada does not produce its own low-cost insulin. At the same time, however, it offers a substantially lower price for well-known brand-name medications than the US. Therefore, the so-called “Canadian insulin” is the same as the “US insulin” but for a much more reasonable price.
Final Words
All in all, insulin is a life-saving medical product for those who live with diabetes mellitus. The exceptionally high cost for it in the US is caused by many factors, starting from the lack of competition and ending with the lack of governmental control of the insulin price increase. Even private insurers do not usually fully cover insulin expenses in the country. So, let us just hope that the country will manage to overcome these factors and that the situation will become better in the nearest future!
