Out-of-Control Insulin Pricing Is Killing People With Diabetes — Doctors and Patients Unite for National Protest Against Eli Lilly, Others
Boston, MA – February 20, 2018: Today the Right Care Alliance launched a national campaign to curb the endless cycle of insulin price gouging led by Eli Lilly and other pharmaceutical companies. Eli Lilly has continually raised prices, squeezing the personal finances of the seven million Americans dependent on the drug to maintain their health. Patients who can’t afford their medication are resorting to crowdfunding and even rationing — a dangerous practice that led to the tragic deaths of at least two young people with diabetes last year.
“The Right Care Alliance is calling for an end to this extortionist and shameful price-jacking,” said Dr. Vikas Saini, RCA co-chair. “No one should die because they can’t afford their insulin, especially when the CEO of Eli Lilly is making more than $16 million a year.”
The Right Care Alliance campaign to end insulin price gouging will kick off with a Facebook Live event on Tuesday, February 27th at 7:30pm ET (featuring interviews with patients and doctors affected by high insulin prices) and an online petition targeting Eli Lilly.
Also planned are protests, write-a-thons, and social media outreach by Right Care Alliance chapters in 15 cities across the country. The insulin campaign conversation on social media will be anchored by the #RightCare and #Insulin4All hashtags.
Key facts:
- There are 1.25-3 million Americans with Type 1 diabetes who depend on insulin to stay alive and another 4 million Americans with Type 2 diabetes who use insulin
- The average cost of insulin has tripled in the last 10 years
- The doctors who discovered insulin in 1921 sold the patent for $1 to the University of Toronto
- It costs a Type 1 diabetic an average of $1,000 per month for insulin and supplies
- Searching for “insulin” on Go Fund Me returns over 6,000 results
The goal of the campaign is to raise public awareness of insulin price gouging, and to create public outcry for drug companies to reduce prices to affordable levels. The campaign calls out the pharmaceutical lobby’s influence in federal and state policy, urging wide public action against a dysfunctional system that puts the lives of diabetics at risk so that corporate shareholders can profit.
About the Right Care Alliance
The Right Care Alliance (RCA) is a grassroots coalition of clinicians, patients, and community members organizing to make health care institutions accountable to communities and put patients, not profits, at the heart of health care. We believe that Right Care is a human right. It places the health and wellbeing of patients first. Right Care is affordable and effective. It is compassionate, honest, and safe. Right Care brings healing and comfort to patients, and satisfaction to clinicians. Achieving Right Care will require radically transforming how care is delivered and financed.
Contact
Aaron Toleos
aaron@rightcarealliance.org
(617) 849-4669
@rightcarenow