Eli Lilly recently announced that it will reduce the price of its insulin Humalog by 70% in the US and cap the out-of-pocket cost for those on commercial insurance at $35 per month. This is the second time Lilly has significantly reduced the cost of its insulin after lowering the list price of Humalog by 50% in 2019. As a result of these pricing measures, it is likely that Lilly will remain a leading manufacturer in the insulin market and is in a strong position to compete on lower insulin prices, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Lilly’s move follows on from recent US federal action, the Inflation Reduction Act, that legislated reducing the Medicare beneficiary insulin out-of-pocket costs at $35 per month.

Akash Patel, Pharma Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “The future of the insulin market is likely to feature increased competition driven by federally mediated price-capping, the rollout of biosimilars across the global market, and the launch of once-weekly basal insulins from Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly.”

Lilly will likely maintain or increase its market share in the basal insulin space as the average out-of-pocket cost for its insulin products is already below the $35 price cap. However, there is steadily increasing pressure to its market share in China, with several companies developing insulin lispro biosimilars, and alternative lower-priced insulins such as Viatris’s Semglee (insulin glargine).

Patel concludes: “The increasing wave of patient advocacy for equity of access to insulin will continue to drive down insulin prices and likely lead to competition between Lilly, Sanofi, and Novo Nordisk for the pricing and sales of their major branded insulins. In the face of continued competition, Lilly has developed a recently authorized biosimilar, Rezvoglar, to Sanofi’s leading branded insulin glargine (Lantus).”