UPDATE—Just learned that Eli Lilly executives are raging and furious at losing $20 billion in market cap from this stunt with @TwitterBlue. It’s too bad they don’t see their own damn insulin price gouging as the actual problem. Karma @LillyPad, karma.
2) let this sink in— “Eli Lilly’s current estimated markup on Humalog between 4,359% and 5,977%.”— that’s 43x-60x price gouging markup!!!
teenvogue.com/story/insulin-…
3) Eli Lilly’s insulin products sold $878 million in one quarter alone recently. Again lilly’s main insulin is at 43-60x price markup! It’s almost all profit!
Lilly, Novo & Sanofi together supply 100% of all insulin in the US, and 90% of entire world!
investors.com/news/technolog…
5) Never forget the 193 people in congress who voted against price cap on insulin. It’s effing life and death.
Insulin was discovered and patent gifted for $1 over 100 years ago. It saves lives. It should be free, or capped at most $35/month. Yet, 193 Republicans voted against capping the price of insulin, which now easily costs $1000+/month. Never forget.
#DemocratsSaveLives
If you are in a place to support our work, consider chipping in at the link in this video!
6) Insulin is off patent now. But pharma has patent hacked their way to keep charging over $300 a vial in the US… all while it is just $20-30 a vial in Canada. There is no excuse it should be that much higher in US.
Insulin was invented ~100 years ago, and its patent sold for $1.
“Do you know the reason why [insulin is] $1,000 with insurance?” ~@AOC
There is no reason for insulin to cost $21 in Canada for a 10 ml bottle, while it costs a mortgage payment in the US.
AOC Shares Story of Father's Cancer Battle During Hearing
AOC opened up about her family’s struggle and her father's battle with lung cancer in a hearing on affordable health care
7) this mom’s video still makes me cry every time I watch it. People shouldn’t have to choose to put food on table versus insulin!!!
8) the US has the highest rate of people skipping their medicine doses because they can’t afford it. Insulin price gouging is the main driver.
6) Yet, America has the highest rate of skipping drugs -- 1 in 6 patients!!! It’s shameful how much Americans have to skip their prescription medicine compared to other countries that pay much less and have zero copays.
nytimes.com/2019/11/11/upsho…
9) this topic is personal to me—family members have diabetes, and I was a diabetes epidemiologist once upon a time. I’m gonna have more to say on this in my newsletter this weekend. Please subscribe (free):
drericding.substack.com/subs…
10) hell yes @BernieSanders burns Eli Lilly’s disgusting profiteering. @LillyPad deserves all the shame in the world for their insulin price gouging.
11) Eli Lilly’s CEO David A. Ricks made $19 million in 2021, up from <$15 million in 2017. His 2022 is reportedly even higher well over 20 million. ➡️ BLOOD 🩸 MONEY.
12) In the world of drugs, do NOT be a Martin Shkreli or Eli Lilly… ➡️be a Jonas Salk (polio shot inventor) and Frederick Banting (insulin inventor).
💡Salk and Banting both donated their invention for **free** for all mankind. Saving lives should be paramount >>> profit.
13) I’m both an epidemiologist and health economist… and moonlight as a nutrition/diabetes scientist. If you want discussions on COVID, diabetes, nutrition, public health updates, and participate in chats… SUBSCRIBE: drericding.substack.com/subs…
14) Eli Lilly deserves it. “This is almost like a symbol of the public rage in many ways: the market realized that there are people who want to come out at Eli Lilly with pitchforks” for their price gouging.
semafor.com/article/11/11/20…
15) Fake accounts sometimes tell the most honest truth. Even the fake ones that fake the apology. The real Eli Lilly @LillyPad deserves every bit of the shitstorm that they brought onto themselves by price-gouging insulin 💉
16) Pharma talks about “free market”—but that doesn’t hold up when they block imports/trade, & when medicines are essential “needs” not mere casual “wants” like a new iPhone. You can pass on luxury goods, but you CANNOT skip the $5000 medicine to save your family=> price gouging.
17) Big pharma’s excuse is often “we charge a lot of $ because of research”… but that’s not true. Pharma spends way more on marketing than actual research. It is a “fairytale” says @katieporteroc. Listen:
Big pharma greed in a nutshell...
“Big pharma fairytale is R&D justifies astronomical prices, but the pharma reality is that you spent most of your company’s money making money for yourself”
Congresswoman @katieporteroc slams @abbvie CEO Richard Gonzalez
18) SCOOP confirmed—Twitter did cause Eli Lilly execs to fall into a raging panic. Just as I reported last week above. Now Lilly is withdrawing all advertising.
CONFIRMED—My scoop that Eli Lilly executives were in a furious panic is now confirmed by WaPo. The fake @TwitterBlue verified tweet offering free insulin has now led @LillyPad to suspend all advertising—costing @Twitter millions of ad revenue—for just $8!
washingtonpost.com/technolog…
19) insulin costs $10 to make. But sells for $275/vial. It’s almost all profit.
20) The shaming pressure on @LillyPad is working. Damn insulin price gouging profiteering has got to stop!!!
HELL YES—Eli Lilly CEO now admit the #insulin tweet flap “probably” signals they need to bring down cost. Twitter trolling is working. As I reported—@LillyPad execs went into full raging panic when the “free insulin” fake tweet went out. Keep pressure on!
arstechnica.com/science/2022…
21) Congratulations to Sean at @MorePerfectUS… they did the “insulin is free” fake tweet that brought -$20 billion to Eli Lilly. Here is the story below. 👏
NEW: Remember the viral “insulin is free” parody tweet that set the internet ablaze?
We were behind that.
Here’s how our staff writer Sean exposed the greed of Elon Musk and Eli Lilly with just $8, 9 words, and 10 minutes.
Nov 22, 2022 · 11:36 PM UTC
