Attorney General Ellison Secures
$35 Eli Lilly Insulin for Minnesotans
Here is everything you need to know to purchase Eli Lilly insulin for just $35
Attorney General Keith Ellison reached a settlement with insulin manufacturer Eli Lilly, which guarantees that Minnesotans will be able to purchase Eli Lilly insulin products for just $35 for the next 5 years. Eli Lilly will also donate free insulin to 15 clinics serving low-income Minnesotans for the next five years.
Here’s what you need to know.
- How to Buy $35 Eli Lilly Insulin
- Who Can Get $35 Insulin
- What Products are Covered
- How to Obtain Free Insulin
- How Clinics Can Enroll in the Free Insulin Program
- What Led to This Settlement
How to Buy $35 Eli Lilly Insulin
Buying $35 Eli Lilly insulin is easy. Just follow these three simple steps:
- Visit www.insulinaffordability.com and scroll down to where it says, “Download your $35/month Insulin Savings Card”
- Answer several short questions and click “Download Savings Card.”- You do not need to provide personal information like your name, address, or phone number.
- Bring that card to your pharmacy along with your prescription for any Eli Lilly insulin product and purchase that insulin for $35.
You are not required to provide any identifying information to download the insulin savings card.
Who Can Get $35 Insulin
Any Minnesota resident with a valid prescription for an eligible Eli Lilly insulin product can purchase a month-long supply of that product for $35. The only exception are Minnesotans on a governmental health insurance program like Medical Assistance or Medicare Part D. Those on Medicare can already purchase insulin for $35 thanks to President Biden’s American RescuePlan.
Note that if you have private insurance, you must choose whether to use that insurance when buying insulin, or to use this program to buy your prescription for $35 per month. If you choose to use this program to buy for $35 per month, you would not involve your private insurance in the transaction.
What Products Are Covered
Any insulin product marketed by Eli Lilly in Kwikpen, cartridge, or vial presentations in the United States under the brands Humalog, Humulin, Insulin Lispro, Basaglar, Lyumjev, and Rezvoglar, and any biosimilar that Eli Lilly markets in Kwikpen, vial, cartridge or vial presentations.
If you use more than one eligible Eli Lilly insulin product, each month-long prescription will cost $35.
How to Obtain Free Insulin
The Attorney General’s Office is currently working to enroll clinics in the free insulin program and will share the list of participating clinics with the public when able. The Office strongly encourages clinics with questions about getting involved in the insulin donation system to contact the Office with questions on eligibility and how to apply.
Aside from the Eli Lilly Insulin settlement, the Lilly Cares Foundation may provide access to free insulin for some eligible patients. More information about the Lilly Cares Foundation may be found on their website at https://www.lillycares.com.
How Clinics Can Enroll in the Free Insulin Program
The settlement requires Eli Lilly to donate insulin to clinics through three national relief agencies, each of which has differing eligibility requirements for participating clinics. Although eligibility requirements differ slightly, generally speaking the clinic must have the capability to properly order, track, receive, store, and dispense insulin, and must be or be owned by a non-profit entity. Further requirements may include means-testing for patients, or service to a particular low-income patient population. Please reach out to the Attorney General’s Office for more information about becoming a participating clinic by contacting Assistant Attorney General Noah Lewellen at (651) 757-1420 or noah.lewellen@ag.state.mn.us.
What Led to This Settlement
In 2018, the Minnesota Attorney General sued Eli Lilly and two other insulin manufacturers alleging they deceptively priced their insulin products, which caused uninsured and underinsured Minnesotans to pay astronomically high out-of-pocket costs based on the list price of the drugs. This settlement resolves the litigation against Eli Lilly. The Attorney General’s litigation against the other two defendants, Sanofi–Aventis and Novo Nordisk, continues.
Attorney General Ellison is working hard to ensure Minnesotans can afford their lives and live with dignity, safety, and respect—and no one should ever have to choose between affording their lives and affording to live. That means insulin should be affordable and accessible for every single Minnesotan who needs it.
The Skyrocketing Cost of Insulin
When insulin was first discovered in 1921, just over a century ago, the scientists who discovered it sold their patents to the University of Toronto for $1 because they wanted it to save lives, with one of them famously saying, “Insulin does not belong to me, it belongs to the world.” Yet since then, pharmaceutical companies have generated billions of dollars in profit from it by charging exorbitant prices.
In 2018, when the Attorney General’s Office first sued Eli Lilly and the other manufacturers, a five-pack of Basaglar Kwikpens was listed at more than $390 and a five-pack of Humalog Kwikpens was listed at more than $630. According to the February 2020 final report of Attorney General Ellison’s Advisory Task Force on Lowering Pharmaceutical Drug Prices, the price of some insulin products has increased by more than 1,100 percent over the last two decades.
With this settlement, Minnesotans can obtain a month’s supply of their insulin for $35, and for free, in some instances.
This site will be supplemented and updated as new information becomes available.
