--- title: Eli Lilly cuts insulin costs — for real, this time - The Hustle description: Over 1m Americans rationed their insulin in 2022. Finally, Eli Lilly has announced it will lower insulin prices. image: https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/900409255-HS-News-Brief_2023-03-02T030854.381Z.webp --- # Eli Lilly cuts insulin costs — for real, this time ![Juliet Bennett Rylah](https://53.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/53/assets/hubspot.com/web-team/WBZ/HubSpot%20Media/Blog%202021/Images/Nav/Optimized/TheHustle_Icon_Dark.svg) [Juliet Bennett Rylah](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/author/juliet-bennett-rylah) [Juliet Bennett Rylah Twitter profile ](https://twitter.com/JBRylah) Published: March 02, 2023 Updated: October 11, 2023 In November, a verified — but fake — Eli Lilly and Co. account [announced](https://thehustle.co/11152022-eli-lilly/) that the drugmaker’s insulin was free. ![Eli Lilly cuts insulin costs — for real, this time](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hs-fs/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/900409255-HS-News-Brief_2023-03-02T030854.381Z.webp?width=595&height=400&name=900409255-HS-News-Brief_2023-03-02T030854.381Z.webp) The real Eli Lilly quickly denied the phony tweet. In the aftermath, its stock dipped and Twitter paused its check mark program. But now, Eli Lilly has made a *real *announcement that should offer diabetes patients some relief, [per](https://www.wsj.com/articles/eli-lilly-to-cut-prices-of-insulin-drugs-by-70-c554f516) *The Wall Street Journal.* Eli Lilly will: - Cap out-of-pocket insulin costs at $35/mo. - Cut prices of insulin products, including top sellers Humalog and Humulin, by 70% **Insulin prices in the US…** … have skyrocketed since 2010. They’re over 8x higher than in 32 other high-income nations, [per](https://www.rand.org/news/press/2020/10/06.html) a 2020 Rand Corp. study, and up to 50% higher even after factoring in rebates and discounts. In 2022, Eli Lilly made [$7B+](https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/LLY/eli-lilly/revenue) in revenue as [1.3m](https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/17/health/insulin-rationing-diabetes-study/index.html) Americans rationed their insulin, which can be dangerous — even [deadly](https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/09/01/641615877/insulins-high-cost-leads-to-lethal-rationing#:~:text=Press-,High%20Price%20Of%20Insulin%20Leads%20Patients%20To%20Ration%20The%20Drug,tried%20to%20stretch%20the%20doses.). **So why now?** For one, pressure. The Inflation Reduction Act recently [capped](https://aspe.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/documents/bd5568fa0e8a59c2225b2e0b93d5ae5b/aspe-insulin-affordibility-datapoint.pdf) out-of-pocket insulin costs to $35/mo. for people on Medicare, and in his State of the Union, President Biden vowed to expand that cap to all Americans. For two, competition. Just [three companies](https://thehustle.co/eli-lilly-novo-nordisk-sanofi-insulin-premiums/) — Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi — have long dominated the global insulin market. Now, newcomers are stepping up to make the lifesaving drug more affordable, [including](https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/mark-cubans-act-drug-costs-tackling-insulin-rcna61807) Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Co. and the state of California, where lawmakers have earmarked [$100m](https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/23574178/insulin-cost-california-biden-medicare-coverage) to develop a generic product. 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