Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks Calling On Sanofi To Lower Their Price Of Insulin

Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor calling on Sanofi to lower their price of insulin. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

The exponential spike in the cost of insulin is one of the most unjust and widespread health care trends in the past few decades. This drug, discovered a century ago and which is exceedingly cheap to produce, has seen its price surge in recent years sometimes far beyond $300 for a month’s supply. That’s cruel. It’s unjust. But it is also for so many a reality.

Senate Democrats took a major step towards basic fairness last year by capping the cost of insulin for people on Medicare by $35 a month. Since Democrats took action, Big Pharma has taken note: Eli Lilly announced a few weeks ago that they too will be capping the cost of insulin for patients at $35 a month, as well as dramatically dropping the overall price.

And just this week, Novo Nordisk also decided to drop their price in a similar manner.

Today I call on the third big drug maker of insulin, Sanofi, to end their practice of keeping insulin prices at sky-high levels, so that Americans can afford to pay for diabetes treatment without going broke. I will be sending Sanofi a letter soon expressing my strong desire—and Americans’ strong desire—for them to drop the price of insulin.

Lowering insulin costs for all patients is the right thing to do, and I hope Sanofi makes the correct decision to lower their prices very soon just like Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk have done.

All of us know someone with diabetes—put yourself in their shoes and imagine the sheer agony of struggling to afford this basic drug just so you can live a decent and healthy life, so you don’t have to worry about going blind or having a leg amputated. Just so you can live at all. No American should have to go through that, ever—ever. But too many do.

In the Senate, I hope both parties can build on the work last year to cap patient insulin costs at $35 a month for everyone. We did it for Medicare, we can do it for everyone else, and we hope we can get that done on a bipartisan basis. Lowering insulin prices isn’t a Democratic issue or a Republican issue, it’s purely American.

And I hope we can get something done. But today, the most immediate thing that can happen, is for Sanofi to listen to the voice of millions of Americans and make the right choice to lower the price they charge for insulin for all patients.

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