The City of Columbus has filed a lawsuit against several pharmaceutical companies and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) for allegedly inflating insulin prices for decades, resulting in millions of dollars in excessive costs for taxpayers. The lawsuit seeks to recover these funds and hold accountable those responsible for this alleged unethical pricing scheme.
Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein announced that the city has filed a lawsuit against several drug companies and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) for allegedly inflating insulin prices for decades, costing taxpayers millions. Klein said, 'Price gouging people who need life-saving drugs like insulin is unconscionable.
' He added, 'Drug manufacturers who conspired to drive up the price of insulin, pass the costs onto consumers, and pay off the pharmacy middlemen to look the other way need to be held accountable.' The lawsuit aims to recover the millions of dollars in exorbitant fees that Columbus taxpayers have paid due to this alleged unethical pricing scheme. Columbus joins attorneys general from Arkansas, California, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, and Mississippi, as well as the City of Cleveland and other municipalities, in suing three major insulin producers and several PBMs. The companies named in the lawsuit include Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, Sanofi-Aventis, CVS Health, CVS Pharmacy, Caremark Health, United Health Group, Express Scripts Pharmacy, Optum Rx, among others. Napoli Shkolnik PLLC and Ventura Law will serve as special counsel to the city, with no cost to Columbus for these services under a contract approved by City Council in July 2024. A recent analysis revealed that from February 2020 to November 2023, Columbus spent at least $26 million on diabetes medications and supplies for the city's 9,000 employees, significantly more than necessary due to the alleged price gouging and kickback scheme. The city's filing notes that despite decreasing production costs for insulin and diabetes-related products, drug prices have risen exponentially. A September 2018 study indicated that a reasonable price for a year's supply of human insulin should be less than $100 per person, yet a 2016 analysis showed that U.S. diabetics spent an average of $5,705 each for insulin that year. Over the past 25 years, the list price of certain insulins has increased by more than 1,000 percent in some cases. The lawsuit alleges that companies engaged in a shadow pricing scheme, raising prices in tandem and by the same percentage within days of each other to avoid price competition. The lawsuit has been filed with the United States District Court of New Jersey, but no hearing dates have been announced
INSULIN PRICES DRUG COMPANIES PHARMACY BENEFIT MANAGERS COLUMBUS LAWSUIT TAXPAYERS PRICE GOUGING
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