At a press conference called by parents whose diabetic children have died due to high price of insulin, Sanofi Pharmaceuticals was denounced for its murderous greed. “Sanofi’s high prices are killing people like my son Alec Smith-Holt”. Along with parents of two other young people who died rationing insulin, Holt-Smith attempted to deliver Alec’s ashes to Sanofi officials during a protest at the research facility on November 16. The parents were joined by local diabetes patients, doctors, nurses and students.
A vial of insulin that once cost around $25 now goes for about $400 to $500. Dr. Vikas Saini, co-director of the Right Care Alliance said insulin has been around for a century and costs about $5 to manufacture. Globally, half of the people who need insulin can’t reliably get it. A class-action lawsuit led in a federal court in New Jersey accuses Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi of acting like an insulin “cartel” and raising prices “in lockstep.”
“The Trump administration, and its small maneuvers on drug pricing, ultimately aim to protect Big Pharma from public outrage and calls for greater changes to its abusive, monopolistic business model,” said Peter Maybarduk, director of Public Citizen’s Global Access to Medicines Program, in a statement on Friday.
