After Louisiana’s ‘Netflix model’, Sanofi announces US$ 99 plan for diabetics in US

By PharmaCompass

2019-04-18

Impressions: 132 Article

Facing immense pressure from the Trump Administration and the US Congress to lower the price of drugs, companies are coming up with innovative models to make drugs affordable to Americans. The latest to join the bandwagon is French drugmaker Sanofi who announced it will sell monthly supplies of insulin for a fixed price of US$ 99 to patients paying with cash. At that price, Sanofi will offer up to 10 boxes of insulin pens and 10 mL vials per month regardless of a patient's income.

However, the company denies this is an attempt to appease the legislators. Sanofi said this is a part of the company’s Insulins Valyou Savings Program it had launched a year back. The drugmaker said it expanded the program after hearing stories of people rationing their insulin because they couldn’t afford it. Since its launch last year, the program has resulted in savings of around US$ 10 million. The program is available at US pharmacies.

“It is unacceptable to Sanofi that some people living with diabetes are struggling to pay for their insulin, so we have moved to act creatively and aggressively to help address affordability and access needs,” Michelle Carnahan, the head of North America primary care at Sanofi, said in a statement.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates more than 30 million Americans have diabetes. The annual cost of insulin for people with type 1 diabetes in the US nearly doubled — from US$ 2,900 during 2012 to US$ 5,700 in 2016.

Sanofi isn’t the only one working on reducing insulin prices. In March, Eli Lilly announced plans to sell a half-price version of its blockbuster insulin medication Humalog.

Recently, Louisiana was in news for its new “Netflix” approach to buying hepatitis C drugs. Louisiana’s Departments of Health and Corrections had announced last month that Asegua Therapeutics, a generics subsidiary arm of Gilead Sciences, is partnering them for their “Netflix” subscription model for hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment.

First announced in August 2018, under the Netflix model, instead of paying for each prescription individually, the state would pay a subscription fee to the drug company whereby the state would then receive unlimited access to the drug, similar to how consumers pay a monthly fee to stream unlimited television shows and movies.

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