$35 in 2025 dollars buys as much as $32.92 in 2023 dollars [1]. At what point does it become unprofitable for anyone to manufacture and deliver? (Not the out-of-patent stuff nobody wants to take that can be made for $3/vial. The long-acting and ultra-fast formulations people actually use when given a choice.)
And unlike with home insurance, in an insulin shortage, people die. You need a CalFIRE mechanism, a seller of last resort, who will purchase the insulin at any price on the market and sell it at $35 for such a scheme to work.
State-controlled production removes that surprise factor. It's a much better system than price regulation.
The difference is that the proposed caps for home insurance would have made the product unprofitable, no question.
My understanding is that there is no way any vial of insulin anywhere, at this point in time, should cost enough to produce for US$35 asking price to be unprofitable. See [1] and [2] for example. This would need to increase with inflation, of course.
Regardless, the bill didn't pass. Arguments like this were probably the reason why.
> The long-acting and ultra-fast formulations people actually use when given a choice.
The patent for insulin glargine (Lantus) and insulin aspart (NovoLog) expired over a decade ago, though kind of amusingly Sanofi holds an active patent on “putting more Lantus in a vial than you usually would”
I could be wrong but off the top of my head the only insulin I can think of that’s probably under patent is Afrezza, which is cool as hell because it’s inhalable and ultra-quick
JumpCrisscross•52m ago
It’s less the patent per se than the production cost. A lot of cost estimates use the 1980s Humalin or whatnot as their baseline. I’m not diabetic. But everyone I know who is doesn’t like that one. So we need to know the cost for the medicines folks are actually taking.
jrflowers•17m ago
It looks like the cost to manufacture modern biosimilars could be around $2-6 per vial.
toomuchtodo•2h ago
California governor vetoes bill that would have set a $35 cap for insulin - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37815862 - October 2023 (139 comments)
California’s Plan for Cheaper Insulin Collides with Big Pharma’s Price Cuts - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35325942 - March 2023 (2 comments)
California's Own Brand of Insulin - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35220390 - March 2023 (0 comments)
Insulin is way too expensive. California has a solution: Make its own - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34726726 - February 2023 (258 comments)
California aims to make its own insulin brand to lower price - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32311465 - August 2022 (29 comments)
Governor Newsom announces California will make its own insulin - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32021868 - July 2022 (216 comments)
California aims to slash insulin prices - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31649237 - June 2022 (208 comments)
JumpCrisscross•2h ago
Because this worked so well for home insurance.
$35 in 2025 dollars buys as much as $32.92 in 2023 dollars [1]. At what point does it become unprofitable for anyone to manufacture and deliver? (Not the out-of-patent stuff nobody wants to take that can be made for $3/vial. The long-acting and ultra-fast formulations people actually use when given a choice.)
And unlike with home insurance, in an insulin shortage, people die. You need a CalFIRE mechanism, a seller of last resort, who will purchase the insulin at any price on the market and sell it at $35 for such a scheme to work.
State-controlled production removes that surprise factor. It's a much better system than price regulation.
[1] https://www.usinflationcalculator.com
hodgehog11•1h ago
My understanding is that there is no way any vial of insulin anywhere, at this point in time, should cost enough to produce for US$35 asking price to be unprofitable. See [1] and [2] for example. This would need to increase with inflation, of course.
Regardless, the bill didn't pass. Arguments like this were probably the reason why.
[1] https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(21)... [2] https://www.medcentral.com/endocrinology/diabetes/the-high-c...
jrflowers•1h ago
The patent for insulin glargine (Lantus) and insulin aspart (NovoLog) expired over a decade ago, though kind of amusingly Sanofi holds an active patent on “putting more Lantus in a vial than you usually would”
https://patents.google.com/patent/US9345750B2/en
I could be wrong but off the top of my head the only insulin I can think of that’s probably under patent is Afrezza, which is cool as hell because it’s inhalable and ultra-quick
JumpCrisscross•52m ago
jrflowers•17m ago
https://gh.bmj.com/content/3/5/e000850
Teever•34m ago
It seems like insulin is a lot more affordable there and it's obviously an economically sustainable rate because companies keep selling it to Canada.
How much does it cost in Canada anyways?