Desperate Measures: The Skyrocketing Price Of Insulin In America
A woman hands an insulin pen to Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) during a town hall meeting on February 23, 2017 in Thibodaux, Louisiana. The woman who says the pen costs $500 is worried if it will still be covered by Cassidy's new healthcare legislation. JONATHAN BACHMAN/GETTY IMAGES hide caption
A woman hands an insulin pen to Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) during a town hall meeting on February 23, 2017 in Thibodaux, Louisiana. The woman who says the pen costs $500 is worried if it will still be covered by Cassidy's new healthcare legislation.
JONATHAN BACHMAN/GETTY IMAGESHere's the story of a groundbreaking medical discovery. Back in 1923, three Canadian inventors discovered insulin — the life-saving hormone produced in the pancreas that keeps your blood sugar from rising too high or dropping too low.
One of the inventors — Frederick Banting — refused to put his name on a patent for insulin, saying it was unethical for a doctor to profit from a discovery that would save lives.
His colleagues wound up selling the patent to the University of Toronto for just one dollar.
Fast-forward to 2019.
The price of insulin has skyrocketed in recent decades — from roughly $20 for a 10-millimeter vial of the drug in 1996, to as much as $290 a vial today.
Some diabetes patients need to take multiple vials a day to stay alive.
The out-of-control costs have forced some families to ration the drug, buy it on the black market and even travel to Canada, where insulin can be bought for a fraction of the cost.
More than 30 million Americans have diabetes. More than 7 million of them rely on insulin to stay alive. How could treatment for such a common disease be so expensive?
We explored this question and the proposed legislation that would cap insulin prices in the U.S.