@katers87, agreed. Totally. Where I get confused is when the insurance co owns the hospital. Who’s to blame then? I suppose theres enough blame to go around.
These guys say Humalog is a generic, so maybe they will work on it. Any competition can’t be bad. There’s money to be made.
I didn’t listen to the podcast. I’m afraid I don’t have enough interest. I will say that due to the structure of insulin, my understanding is that generics are impossible. Instead, biosimilar insulins (like Basaglar, a biosimilar in all but the name to Lantus) may become available. Perhaps this is what they meant?
Somebody told me that Humalog was generic. That nobody was protecting the patent. May or may not be true.
The patent on Humalog has expired. It was first approved in 1996. Not positive but I think the patent expired in 2013 although there are sometimes multiple patents covering a single drug. Obviously the drug companies have teams of lawyers on task for this.
As per previous comments, there can not be a “generic” for Humalog but there can be a “biosmiliar”.
Cost to produce biosimilar is high. Very high. Entry to market is tough.
The current biosimilar Basalglar for Lantus does not have (IMHO) great cost savings. How to find a price is a question in and of itself. But using GoodRX for pricing on both Basaglar and Lantus (5 pens @ 3ml per pen - 15 ml total) shows a 15% price reduction for Basaglar. Sure this adds up over time but nothing to jump up and down about.
Sanofi received FDA approval for Admelog - a biosimilar Humalog. I believe it will accomplish as much as Basalgar has for the basal market - in other words, nothing (helpful) for the patient, except a bunch of insurance formularies removing Humalog in favor of the (supposedly) cheaper Admelog…
(This is of course Sanofi’s response to Lilly “cloning” its Lantus - a sorta tit-for-tat among the big players to maintain their respective market shares. Money spent/wasted on researching already existing products instead of new products, or heaven forbid, just lowering consumer prices. No one wins.)
You all heard the feds are suing? Exciting news for us? I’ve been waiting for this to happen. I was surprised it hadn’t. I suspect they built a really good case prior to filing.
