We Believe People Have a Right to Life-Saving Insulin at Fair and Affordable Prices
According to the American Diabetes Association, more than 37 million Americans – 11 percent of the population – are afflicted with diabetes.
Despite relatively few technological innovations, the price of insulin in the US has steadily and dramatically increased. In just the last 20 years, the list price of insulin has grown by up to 1000%.
As a result, we are now facing an insulin affordability crisis. Tragically, more than a million Americans have consequently been forced to spend more than 40% of their post-subsistence income on insulin, according to a 2022 Yale Study.
The escalating cost of insulin has impacted accessibility for patients and imposed significant additional costs on self-funded payors and government health care plans.
Now, insulin manufacturers and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) are facing lawsuits for artificially inflating the price of insulin at the expense of individuals and families in need of essential care.
The price of insulin is effectively controlled by just three companies: Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly, and Sanofi. Similarly, nearly 90% of the pharmacy benefit managing market for insulin is controlled by three companies – Express Scripts, CVS Caremark, and OptumRx.
These companies face allegations of engineering price increases on insulin through an opaque, conspiratorial kickback scheme that has exponentially increased their profits at the expense of payors.
Our team aims to help hold these companies accountable for their unjust and exploitative manipulation of insulin prices.
Insulin Pricing Litigation
At the end of 2023, the lawsuits against insulin manufacturers and PBMs were consolidated into a multi-district litigation (MDL) in the United States District Court of New Jersey (Case 2:23-md-03080-BRM-RLS). With this consolidation, new cases against insulin manufacturers and PBMs can be filed in this court.
The Court overseeing the MDL has approved three separate litigation tracks to move forward:
- Self-Funded Payer Track
- State Attorney General Track
- Third-Party Payer Class Track
This litigation seeks:
- Injunctive relief to halt the insulin pricing scheme and protect self-funded plans and their members against future financial harm
- Money paid to cover falsely inflated insulin pricing, to both reimburse claimants for the costs they have unjustifiably suffered and to deter similar future behavior from these defendants and others like them
- Seizure of illicit revenues by PBMs and manufacturers
- Punitive damages intended to punish prior misconduct and discourage misconduct in the future
Who Can File a Lawsuit?
Exploitative hikes in insulin prices have placed an undue burden on self-funded healthcare plans and their plan holders, including government entities and unions at the state, county, and city level. Those entities can join this litigation and be part of holding insulin manufacturers and PBMs accountable.
If you’re interested in learning more, reach out to our team to set up a time to discuss.
Why Baird Mandalas Brockstedt & Federico?
When you retain the lawyers at Baird Mandalas Brockstedt & Federico, you are retaining a sophisticated, experienced, and well-resourced team of attorneys who are dedicated to achieving justice for you.
Our highly renowned counsel has built a reputation of standing up to major corporations and delivering impactful results for our clients. We have a long and successful history of representing governmental authorities in a variety of litigations.
Our team helped secure the billions won in the national prescription opioid litigation, representing more than 40 governmental authorities across the country in their efforts to obtain relief for their communities ravaged by the opioid epidemic.
Members of the BMBF team helped lead a consortium of attorneys and law firms representing counties and cities in Florida and South Carolina that have benefited from the over $50 billion in settlements.
Our team also represents 60 school boards, including Chicago Public Schools, Wake County Public School System, Prince George’s County Public Schools, Anne Arundel County Public Schools, Prince William County Public Schools, Loudoun County Public Schools, and Horry County Public Schools in multidistrict litigation against JUUL Labs, Inc. and other co-defendants.
This effort resulted in a national settlement in excess of $1 billion that was announced in January 2023. As a result of BMBF’s efforts, these school boards will be receiving significant compensation to address the vaping epidemic in their districts.
We also represent over 60 school boards in the nationwide litigation related to social media addiction and the youth mental health crisis.
Our team is fighting on behalf of these school boards to change how social media companies operate, recoup funds that have been diverted to addressing mental health problems amongst students, and hold these social media giants accountable for the harm they have caused.
