
Alex Azar, Trump’s HHS Pick, Has Already Been a Disaster for People With Diabetes
Last year The New York Times published an op-ed urging the break up of the “insulin racket.” But rather than break it up, Trump has nominated one of its architects, Alex Azar, for secretary of Health and Human Services.
From 2007 to 2017, Azar worked for pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly. While he was a senior VP, Lilly paid a record $1.415 billion to settle a case on its off-label promotion of the antipsychotic Zyprexa. Rising up the ranks, Azar became president of Lilly USA, the largest division of Eli Lilly, in 2012, a position he held until resigning in January of this year.
During Azar’s tenure, Eli Lilly raised the prices on its insulins in the United States by 20.8 percent in 2014, 16.9 percent in 2015, and 7.5 percent in 2016. Eli Lilly’s biggest seller, Humalog insulin, is now off-patent. But rather than becoming cheaper, Humalog costs more now than when it first came to market in 1996. When Azar started working at Eli Lilly in June 2007, the list price for a vial of Humalog was $74. When he quit in January 2017, it was $269.
At T1International we asked people with type 1 diabetes around the world how much they paid each month to stay alive. The United States topped every country, spending on average $571.69 per month on diabetes costs. Even with insurance, some Americans are spending around half their income on insulin and other supplies.
In fact, price gouging from Eli Lilly and other insulin manufacturers has already had deadly consequences. Shane Patrick Boyle, a founder of Zine Fest Houston, died on March 18 after his GoFundMe campaign to pay for insulin
Continue
reading