Chester Co. Sues Pharmaceutical Industry For Fixing Insulin Prices: DA

WEST CHESTER, PA — The Chester County District Attorney's office is suing the pharmaceutical industry for fixing insulin prices and manipulating the market to benefit their business, according to legal filings in late April.

Several other DA offices around the region have joined the suit, which names Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly, and Sanofi, as well as benefit managers CVS Caremark, Express Scripts, and OptumRx.

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Officials say that drug manufacturers, benefit managers, and others worked together to artificially inflate the cost of insulin and other diabetes medications over the past 20 years or more, according to the lawsuit.

“This office will work to hold big corporations accountable and to protect consumers from predatory pricing schemes. Insulin should be affordable for everyone," Chester County District Attorney Christopher L. de Barrena-Sarobe said in a statement.

Insulin prices were increased by as much as one thousand percent since 2006, part of a deceptive scheme which drastically increased corporate profits, the lawsuit states.

Manufacturers worked directly with pharmacy benefit managers to place preferred drugs in favorable formulary positions, or the list of covered medications on an insurance plan, officials said.

The companies named in the suit control about 96 percent of the nation's insulin market, which is relied upon by some seven million Americans.