The List Price

When we talk about the price of insulin, we are referring to the “list price” of analog insulin. The list price is the price set by the manufacturer that drives all other costs within the drug pricing ecosystem. It is not necessarily the cost an individual pays when picking up their insulin at a pharmacy, due to the variety of insurance coverage schemes.

However, patients are exposed to the list price of insulin when:

• they are uninsured,

• are subject to a deductible,

• are subject to co-insurance on drugs,

• the insulin they use is not on their insurance’s formulary,

• or, are within the Medicare Part D coverage gap

The list price of a vial of Humalog insulin has increased from $21 in 1996 to $275 in 2017, a ~1200% increase. This insulin has not changed at all during this time period. Since 2017, the list price of Humalog insulin has remained unchanged, due to pressure from advocates. We know that the insulin manufacturers have raised the price of all insulins in lockstep with one another.

Our graph below visualizes the price increase (percentage change since 1996) of insulin versus inflation (All Items) and other necessary goods for survival. If the price of insulin had been increased at the same rate of inflation, a vial of Humalog insulin would be $35 today.

We used data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics “Consumer Price Index - All Urban Consumers” as the source for pricing information on the goods and services other than insulin. The following Series IDs were pulled.

• All Items - CUUR0000SA0

• Childcare - CUUR0000SEEB03

• College Tuition - CUUR0000SEEB01

• Food and Beverage - CUUR0000SAF

• Hospital Services - CUUR0000SEMD

• Housing (Shelter) - CUUR0000SAH1

• Medical Care Services - CUUR0000SAM2

• Prescription Drugs - CUUR0000SEMF01

• Utilities - CUUR0000SAH2

For the insulin prices, since this is not publicly available information, long-time insulin advocate, Sarah Stark reversed engineered the price data using price graphs published by the media. Stark’s methodology to obtain this price data is located here.

Our code to analyze the data and create the graph can be found here.