Eli Lilly, facing political pressure for the skyrocketing list price of a widely used insulin treatment, released a report March 25 claiming the price it was paid for insulin dropped by 8.1 percent in the last five years after rebates and discounts, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The price for Eli Lilly's Humalog insulin after rebates and discounts was $135 per patient a month in 2018, down from $147 per patient a month in 2014, the company said. During the same time span, the product's list price, before discounts are applied, rose 51.9 percent, to $594 per patient monthly.
Eli Lilly said the per-patient prices were based on the average use of Humalog for patients using the treatment as prescribed.
The report comes as the three leading insulin manufacturers, Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi, face outrage over the rising list prices of insulin. Critics argue the list price hikes hurt patients without insurance and those with high out-of-pocket costs, causing some to ration doses or turn to unapproved versions of the drug.
In late February, the Senate Finance Committee launched an investigation into steeply rising U.S. insulin prices and asked the three drugmakers to discuss their pricing strategies, their research and development costs and revenue from insulin sales.
Read the full report here.