June 27: Op-Ed

Cost of Insulin is Up, We're Down

I did not care much for sports, and I especially disliked running. But there I was, running in circles with my family, lap after lap. It was 2019, and we were raising money for the Junior Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), a nonprofit organization funding research for type 1 diabetes and treatment. In 2016, my dad was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, and I was made aware of another health detriment in our world. My family in India, both grandfathers and all of my dad’s brothers, have diabetes. As I grew older, I noticed the prevalence of diabetes in the people surrounding me too, in my friends, younger than me even.

Diabetes is defined as the body unable to produce insulin, a hormone that regulates glucose within the body. Prices for diabetic medication have inflated since the 1920s. In 1996, Humalog was sold for $21; in 2019, for $300. There still is no cure for diabetes, but the remedies should not be unattainable to those that are financially unstable; priority is taken away from effective medications and instead the focus is on the affordability. But people should not have to worry about the affordability of a product their body is unable to produce. 

The high cost of insulin is an effect of the virtual monopoly on insulin that has been sustained for decades. Three companies-Novo Nordisk, Sanofi-Aventis, and Eli Lilly-control 90 per cent of the global insulin market, being the only producers until recently. Because of their hold over insulin products, these three companies were coined “The Big Three”. As “The Big Three”, these companies function as monopolies, able to charge higher prices for insulin. Being the main producers, consumers are basically forced to purchase insulin at these higher prices if they wish to survive. The monopolists take advantage of the fact that the consumers need insulin to live.

My friend that is a year younger than me showed me his blood sugar tracker, and explained that the price is similar to that of a phone. With how prevalent diabetes is, why does it cost as much as a phone does? Today, we consider phones essential to society; however, phones are just advanced technology that allow us to easily communicate. The blood sugar tracker on the other hand is a necessity for one’s survival, and yet it is as expensive as one of society’s indulgences. Adjustments to the prices of such products must be made. Even though the technology is medical grade, it is meant for a common person’s use, so it should be made more affordable, like an over the counter medicine is.

In 2018, the average American insulin user paid $3,490 for insulin. In Canada, $725. Already the money spent on insulin was grand, so in 2024, six years later in a world where inflation is as normal as the sky being blue, the cost for insulin for the average American is sure to have surpassed the cost in 2018. Spending in the thousands for insulin is unreasonable for America. Even though the United States is a first world country, it houses 37.9 million Americans living in poverty, 11.5% of the American population. People with type 1 diabetes inject insulin four to five times, every single day. For the poor, paying for insulin is unsustainable if the cost is in the thousands. Even for the middle class, the cost is unreasonable. If the price is in the hundreds in Canada, then America too can adjust the cost of insulin.