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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIndiana Attorney General Todd Rokita has filed lawsuit against one of the state’s most prominent companies, Eli Lilly and Co., alleging that the Indianapolis-based drugmaker participates in a scheme with other insulin manufacturers and pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, to inflate insulin prices.
Rokita said the lawsuit, filed last Wednesday in the Lake County Superior Court, is part of his office’s intensifying efforts to lower insulin prices and improve healthcare affordability.
“Eli Lilly has conspired to raise prices on insulin medications more than 1,000% in the last decade alone,” the lawsuit alleges, noting that drugs priced at $20 when released in the late 1990s now cost between $300 and $700, while costing the company less than $2 to produce. “Raising prices lockstep, Eli Lilly has extracted illegal profits from the state and its citizens.”
In an email to IBJ, Lilly spokesperson Michael Jamison called the lawsuit a waste of resources.
“It is unfortunate that the Indiana AG would decide to spend state resources on such a wasteful lawsuit,” Jamison said.”In similar cases, the plaintiffs have either been dismissed, dropped their case or settled for no money after years of costly litigation.”
Rokita said the lawsuit against Lilly is in conjunction with the state’s previous litigation against other insulin makers and PBMs, which are administrators of prescription drug coverage plans. While Lilly was not named as a defendant in that lawsuit, the attorney general’s office said communication with the drugmaker had soured, prompting the new filing.
Last year Rokita filed suit against pharmaceutical companies Novo Nordisk and Sanofi as well as PBMs Caremark, CaremarkPCS Health, CVS Health Corp., Express Scripts and OptumRx, alleging the companies were conspiring to raise prices on insulin.
“Pharmaceutical companies should not take advantage of Hoosiers or any other American—this includes Lilly, regardless of its Indiana roots,” Rokita said in a written statement Monday.
“For two years, I attempted to resolve this matter with them amicably and without litigation—an effort not required by the state and one not afforded to Lilly’s out-of-state competitors,” Rokita said. “Lilly, which maintains by far the largest market share for insulin, rejected this outreach and consumed two years of time.”
Lilly said it is confident in the strength of its legal position and proud of what it characterized as a strong record of insulin affordability solutions.
“Lilly was the first company to cap what patients pay at $35 per month for all our insulins, we cut insulin prices by 70%, and in 2024 the average monthly out-of-pocket cost for Lilly insulin was less than $15,” Jamison, the Lilly spokesperson, said in an email. “Lilly was also the company that, in collaboration with the federal government, paved the way for lower Medicare insulin prices.”
The company promotes discounts for insulin on its website, such as the Lilly Insulin Value Program, which makes “all Lilly insulins are available for $35 a month whether you have commercial insurance or no insurance.”
Rokita said previous accountability efforts, including Indiana’s earlier lawsuit, prompted manufacturers including Lilly to reduce prices and introduce lower monthly out-of-pocket caps for many patients. He said the new lawsuit builds on that progress by pursuing structural market changes, along with damages and penalties to benefit affected consumers.
According to Rokita’s office, almost 700,000 Indiana residents have been diagnosed with diabetes, with millions more being pre-diabetic. Diabetes is a leading cause of blindness, kidney failure and lower-limb amputations and a major cause of death in Indiana despite effective treatments being available, Rokita’s office said.
Lilly manufactures an array of insulin products for Type 1 diabetes, in which the pancreas makes little or no insulin, and Type 2 diabetes, in which the body is insulin resistant.
Insulin also is foundational to Lilly’s historic success and the history of medicine.
In 1921, University of Toronto researchers discovered that the insulin hormone could be used for the treatment and management of diabetes in adults. Two years later, Lilly became the first company to commercialize insulin.
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