Increasing the Cost of Insulin

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There's been a persistent call for insulin in particular to be made more affordable. California has authorized $100 million in funding to eventually produce a public generic insulin. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has called for her state to do the same thing, put about $150 million behind it. Some non-profit efforts include CivicaRx which is basically a cooperative of hospital systems that is planning to develop its own generic medications and they're starting with insulin.

Insulin was the poster child of overpriced life saving drugs, but a manufacturer finally capped the cost at $35. Vox’s Dylan Scott explains how pharmaceutical companies for decades managed to overprice drugs Americans desperately needed.

This episode was produced by Haleema Shah, edited by Amina Al-Sadi, fact-checked by Laura Bullard and Matt Collette, engineered by Patrick Boyd, and hosted by Sean Rameswaram.

Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained

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