Litigation against manufacturers and pharmacy benefit managers over insulin pricing continues to pick up steam in the new year. Missouri has become latest state to take legal action, following lawsuits by Delaware, Oregon and other states in recent weeks.
Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway announced that her office has filed suit against 19 PBMs and drug manufacturers operating in the state.
“At a time when health care costs continue to soar, we are taking a stand against insulin price manipulation and fraud,” she said in announcing the lawsuit. “It is quite clear that the health care administration conglomerates do not want the prices for diabetes medications to go down, choosing profit over affordable health care for people at risk. Missourians deserve a fair and just marketplace, and we demand nothing less.”
Around 18% of the nearly 450,000 uninsured Missouri residents are diabetic, according to a news release from the attorney general’s office. Manufacturers’ published prices in the state are $300 to $400 for the same at-issue drugs sold in other countries for less than the equivalent of $5 in U.S. currency, it said.
“Access to life-sustaining insulin should not be restricted by radical pricing practices that disproportionately harm families,” said Jeremiah Morgan, interim deputy attorney general. “PBMs have found a way to game the system for their mutual benefit -- the insulin pricing scheme -- and consumers have said ‘enough.’”
The petition, filed in St. Louis County Circuit Court, asks the court to declare this pricing structure unlawful, end predatory behavior and require PBMs to pay what is owed. “If successful, this action will hold PBMs and manufacturers accountable, require financial restitution and send a clear message to other businesses: If you deceive Missouri consumers, you will face the full force of the law,” the release said.
In other recent legal action:
- Delaware sued manufacturers and PBMs for allegedly increasing insulin prices by as much as 1,000% over the past 15 years.
- Oregon filed a lawsuit seeking $900 million in damages from the nation’s largest insulin manufacturers and PBMs, alleging that they worked together to artificially inflate the price of insulin and other critical diabetes medications at the expense of the state’s patients and families.
- Virginia sued the nation’s largest PBMs and insulin manufacturers for alleged violations of the Virginia Consumer Protection Act. The lawsuit alleged a yearslong insulin pricing scheme that artificially inflated the price of diabetes medications and deceived consumers about those inflated prices.
- Indiana filed a similar lawsuit last month, including against in-state drugmaker Eli Lilly.
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