Texas lawsuit alleges conspiracy to inflate insulin prices

DALLAS – The Dallas Morning News reports Attorney General Ken Paxton sued major pharmaceutical makers and other companies Thursday, alleging they violated Texas’ consumer protection law and unjustly enriched themselves by conspiring to spike insulin prices by up to 1,000% over the past decade. The complaint says the consequence of the companies’ actions has been “devastating” for Texas diabetics who were overcharged millions of dollars a year. The lawsuit seeks restitution “and other equitable relief that may be owed to” affected Texans. “Unable to afford the drugs their doctors prescribe, many diabetics in Texas ration or under-dose their diabetes medications, inject expired insulin, reuse needles, and starve themselves to control their blood sugars,” the lawsuit says. “This behavior is extremely dangerous and has led to serious complications or even death.”

Insulin helps manage blood sugar levels and prevent serious complications from diabetes, a leading cause of blindness, kidney failure and lower-limb amputations in Texas. More than 3 million Texans have diabetes, and an additional 7 million have prediabetes, putting them at greater risk of developing diabetes. The lawsuit targets Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi, which collectively manufacture the vast majority of insulin and other diabetic medicine available in Texas. Texas also sued CVS Caremark, Express Scripts and OptumRX — pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, that serve as middlemen for insurance providers and drug manufacturers — and affiliated companies, including CVS Healthcare, CVS Pharmacy, Evernorth Health, Medco Health Solutions, ESI Mail Pharmacy Service, UnitedHealth Group and OptumInsight. The PBMs have “near complete control” of pricing for diabetes medication and affect “nearly every diabetic drug transaction in Texas,” the lawsuit says. The complaint says PBMs “worked in coordination” with the insulin manufacturers “to distort the market for diabetic treatments to their benefit at the expense of Texas diabetics and payers.”