The Minnesota attorney general on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against three major pharmaceutical companies for “deceptive and misleading” price increases for insulin to treat diabetes. “Insulin is a life-or-death drug for people with diabetes,” Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson (D) said in a statement. “Many people can’t afford the price hikes but can’t afford to stop taking the medication either.” ADVERTISEMENT The lawsuit was filed against the country's three major makers of insulin: Sanofi-Aventis, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly and Co. "We believe the claims are without merit, and we will defend against them vigorously," an Eli Lilly spokesman said. "We have no further comment at this time.” Novo Nordisk, however, said only that it is looking into the examinations. "We take this matter seriously, and are currently examining the allegations made in the complaint," a Novo Nordisk spokesman said. "As a company committed to ethics and compliance in how we support patients, we ensure that our business practices are consistent with legal and regulatory requirements." Sanofi said it is "aware of the lawsuit, believes it to be without merit and will vigorously defend against it." The lawsuit points to price spikes for insulin, a common example advocates use to highlight problems with high drug prices. It's an issue Democrats have made a major priority if they take back the House in November and one President Trump Donald TrumpTrump lashes out after grand jury seated for New York criminal probe Schumer tees up vote on Jan. 6 commission bill Senators struggle to save Jan. 6 commission MORE has called attention to also. For example, Swanson said that one insulin product, Lantus, made by Sanofi, rose from a price of $99.35 in 2010 to $269.54 in 2018. The lawsuit alleges that there is a deceptive difference between the sticker price of these insulins and the actual price that insurers pay after negotiators known as pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) get discounts. The attorney general says drug companies are raising the sticker price ever higher so that they can give larger discounts to the PBMs, which helps them secure more favorable coverage of their products relative to their competitors in insurance plans. The problem, Swanson says, is that the spiking sticker prices hurt people who don’t have insurance or who have high deductibles they have to pay before insurance kicks in. “The lawsuit alleges that the list prices the drug companies set are so far from their net prices that they are not an accurate approximation of the true cost of insulin and are deceptive and misleading,” the attorney general’s office says. -- Updated 3:53 p.m.<doc-sep>Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson filed a lawsuit in federal court Tuesday against three manufacturers of synthetic insulin alleging they defrauded consumers by artificially inflating prices for a drug many need to live. Swanson claims Sanofi, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly increased the list prices of several different types of insulin so they could offer larger and larger rebates to pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, which negotiate the cost of drugs for insurers and play a role in deciding what brands are available under insurance plans. The alleged “scheme,” as Swanson described it Tuesday, was designed for pharmaceutical companies to win favor with PBMs and be on the list of “formulary” drugs preferred by insurers. “The result is the public doesn’t know the true cost of insulin, they just see what they are paying,” Swanson said. All three companies named in the lawsuit denied the claims. The price of insulin has skyrocketed in recent years. The cost of some types have jumped more than seven fold, while others have increased two or three times. PATIENTS FORCED TO RATION MEDICINE Dr. Victor Montori, a diabetes specialist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., says the exponential increases in insulin prices have led to a quarter of diabetes patients who require it to ration their medicines. “This rationing has led to otherwise avoidable emergencies,” Montori said. “Lives have been made miserable and some have been cut short by the decision to price insulin outside their reach. This cruelty must stop.” Montori noted the case of Alec Smith, a 27-year-old restaurant manager who died this summer because he couldn’t afford his medications. Amanda Swanson knows those sacrifices first hand. The mother and Type I diabetic said during Tuesday’s news conference about the lawsuit that she’s had to choose between insulin and feeding her family. “Where do you draw the line?” she asked. “I have kids that have to eat. I have to live.” THE COSTS ADD UP Roughly 450,000 Minnesotans have diabetes, said Dr. Lisa Fish, division director of Endocrinology and Diabetes Care at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis. Of those patients, about 10 percent have Type I diabetes, which requires routine insulin injections. The remaining patients with Type II diabetes can also rely on insulin to survive. It costs about $13,000 a year to treat a patient with diabetes, Fish said. But it costs a lot more to treat someone who is hospitalized because they couldn’t afford their medications, she said. “Withholding insulin from people who need it to survive is also foolish as far as cost in addition to the terrible damage it does to people’s lives,” Fish said. LAWSUIT FILED IN NEW JERSEY Swanson’s lawsuit was filed in federal court in New Jersey because the case includes a racketeering allegation that the drug companies committed mail and wire fraud when they distributed inflated prices. No pharmacy benefit managers are named in the lawsuit to limit the scope of the case. “Ultimately, it is the drug companies that are putting the prices into place,” Swanson said. “We decided to go right to the top.” Sales of the five most common insulin products named in the lawsuit topped more than $14 billion in 2016, according to Swanson’s office.<doc-sep>(Reuters) - Minnesota’s attorney general on Tuesday filed a lawsuit accusing drug manufacturers Sanofi SA, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly and Co of deceptively raising prices for insulin. Slideshow ( 4 images ) In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Trenton, New Jersey, Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson took aim at the companies after the list price for some insulin products more than tripled since 2002. The lawsuit alleged that companies fraudulently set artificially high list price for their products while offering rebates to pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) in exchange for them covering the drug on behalf of health plans. PBMs negotiate drug prices for employers and health plans and typically demand hefty discounts off list price from drugmakers in exchange including the medicines on their preferred formularies. The lawsuit contended that the list prices the drug companies set were so far from those net prices that they did not accurately approximate the true cost of insulin and were deceptive and misleading. The practice made insulin less affordable for diabetes patients in high deductible health plans, the uninsured and senior citizens covered by the government Medicare healthcare program, the suit contended. “Many people can’t afford the price hikes but can’t afford to stop taking the medication either,” Swanson said in a statement. Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk in a statement said it was “committed to ethics and compliance in how we support patients.” French drugmaker Sanofi and Indianapolis-based Lilly in separate statements said they believed the case was without merit. The lawsuit comes amid continued concerns about rising U.S. drug costs, particularly for insulin, a hormone needed by many people with diabetes to control blood sugar levels. Swanson’s lawsuit marked the first by a state to target pricing practices of insulin manufacturers. The case was filed in New Jersey, where a similar proposed class action lawsuit is pending. Two other states, Washington and New Mexico, have been conducting similar investigations, according to Novo Nordisk. Novo’s insulin products include Levemir, whose cost according to Swanson has risen from $120.64 per vial in 2012 to $293.75 in 2018. There have been similar price hikes for Lilly’s HumaLog and Sanofi’s Lantus, the lawsuit said. The lawsuit seeks an injunction preventing the companies from disseminating misleading list prices for insulin products. It also seeks damages for Minnesota residents who paid out-of-pocket for their insulin. But it comes a day after the U.S. government said it would propose requiring drugmakers to include the list price of prescription medicines in television commercials. The case is State of Minnesota v. Sanofi-Aventis U.S. LLC, et al, U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey, No. 18-cv-14999.<doc-sep>Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson filed a lawsuit against three pharmaceutical companies for allegedly deceptively raising the price of insulin, causing a financial strain on some in need of the life-saving drug. Swanson filed the lawsuit Tuesday against Sanofi-Aventis U.S. LLC, Novo Nordisk, Inc. and Eli Lilly and Co. The lawsuit claims these companies are committing consumer fraud by creating two different price lists for their insulin. Swanson says they create a large retail price and then they offer big rebates to pharmacy benefit managers (PBM) who negotiate much cheaper prices for insurers. A larger rebate increases the likelihood a PBM puts that drug on a "formulary" or list of approved drugs that health plan policyholders can use. “Essentially the insulin manufacturers create a phony artificial list price that really isn’t paid by anybody other than some uninsured people and underinsured people and people in the Medicare donut hole, but not paid by insurance companies and other purchasers,” said Swanson. People who have high deductible plans, are uninsured or receive Medicare end up paying the artificial list price. The price for some insulin products has doubled since 2011 and tripled since 2002.<doc-sep>
The lawsuit alleges that the drug companies—Sanofi-Aventis U.S. LLC; Novo Nordisk, Inc.; and Eli Lilly and Co. -deceptively raised the list prices of insulin, making it less affordable to patients in high deductible health plans, the uninsured, and senior citizens struggling on Medicare. ST. PAUL, Minn. - The skyrocketing price of insulin used to treat diabetes in recent years has moved Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson to file a lawsuit against three major pharmaceutical companies. The lawsuit alleges that the drug companies—Sanofi-Aventis U.S. LLC; Novo Nordisk, Inc.; and Eli Lilly and Co. -deceptively raised the list prices of insulin, making it less affordable to patients in high deductible health plans, the uninsured, and senior citizens struggling on Medicare. Swanson's office maintains the list price of some insulin products has more than doubled since 2011 and tripled since 2002. “Insulin is a life-or-death drug for people with diabetes," Swanson said in a released statement. "Many people can’t afford the price hikes but can’t afford to stop taking the medication either.” The lawsuit lawsuit alleges that the drug companies fraudulently set an artificially high “list” price for their insulin products but then negotiated a lower actual price by paying rebates to pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). It alleges that patients who belong to health plans generally get the insulin at a lower, retail price, while patients who have no insurance or are underinsured pay the full list price when they have far less resources to do so. The products included in the AG's lawsuit include Sanofi’s Lantus, Novo Nordisk’s NovoLog, and Eli Lilly’s HumaLog, among others. The insulin products involved in the lawsuit generate significant revenue for the drug companies. Swanson's office says in 2016 the drug companies made more than $14 billion in sales of the five most common insulin products named in the lawsuit. Nearly 10 percent of Minnesota residents have diabetes, which is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States. Diabetics who don’t take their insulin may face kidney damage, heart attacks, nerve damage, and ketoacidosis. The original patent for insulin was sold for $1 in 1922 because the inventors wanted the drug to be widely available. Some patients now skip or ration their insulin because of the high costs, which can lead to more expensive health complications or even death.