Maine AG Takes Credit for $35 Cap on Insulin, Even Though That’s What Maker Was Already Charging

Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey celebrated a settlement with Sanofi-Aventis U.S. LLC that will cap Mainers’ insulin costs at $35 per month out-of-pocket on Tuesday, but the company had already been providing the drug at that cost for over a year.

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“Under the settlement, Mainers who are uninsured or who have commercial health insurance will be eligible to purchase monthly supplies of Sanofi insulin products through 2029 for $35 cash,” said the Attorney General’s Office in a press release.

According to Frey, Sanofi also agreed to implement an “enrollment message program” that would inform pharmacists when their customers are eligible for the reduced rate.

The price cap imposed by the settlement will remain in effect through 2029.

Though Frey celebrated the settlement, Sanofi already had policies in place to reduce the price of its most widely prescribed insulin, Lantus, by 78 percent, and to impose a $35 out-of-pocket cost limit for all recipients, including those with commercial insurance or without any insurance.

“With all those decisions, now Sanofi’s suite of savings programs ensures that no patient will pay more than $35 for a monthly supply of Lantus,” said the company in 2023.

Similar measures are already in place at the federal level, with the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act capping the out-of-pocket cost of insulin to $35 per month for Medicare recipients.

Although the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act federally secured the insulin price cap, and President Joe Biden repeatedly touted that policy, it came after he rescinded a rule from President Donald Trump’s first administration pushing for a reduction in insulin costs.