Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks told CNBC Dec. 17 that a report released the day before by two Democratic senators that claimed the drugmaker failed to lower insulin costs was "nonsense."
On Dec. 16, Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., released a report claiming that a plan Eli Lilly announced in March to lower insulin costs and boost accessibility did not work.
"Instead of giving patients access to its generic alternative, this pharmaceutical behemoth is still charging astronomical prices for a drug people require daily and cannot live without," the report said.
Mr. Ricks told CNBC, however, that Eli Lilly's half-priced insulin makes a "pretty big difference" to consumers and is "widely" available. He added that Warren's report showed "what's broken in the rest of the pharmaceutical system."
Mr. Ricks instead blamed pharmacy benefit managers, which negotiate drug benefits, for high drug prices.
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