HARRISBURG, PA — Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday has filed a lawsuit against three major insulin manufacturers and several pharmacy benefit managers, alleging they conspired to inflate insulin prices by more than 1,000% through market practices that increased costs for patients across the state.
The lawsuit, filed this week in Commonwealth Court by the Attorney General’s Antitrust Section, names Eli Lilly and Company, Novo Nordisk Inc. and Sanofi-Aventis US LLC, along with pharmacy benefit managers including Express Scripts, CVS Caremark and OptumRx.
The complaint alleges violations of Pennsylvania’s Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law, as well as unjust enrichment and civil conspiracy.
The state contends that the manufacturers and pharmacy benefit managers coordinated pricing practices that artificially increased insulin costs, benefiting the companies while imposing higher out-of-pocket expenses on consumers.
Pharmacy benefit managers act as intermediaries between drug manufacturers, health insurers, and pharmacies, negotiating drug pricing arrangements and administering prescription benefits.
Pennsylvania’s lawsuit challenges the alleged interaction between those intermediaries and insulin manufacturers, rather than pricing decisions by any single company.
The attorney general’s office alleges the defendants engaged in deceptive market practices that produced artificially elevated prices for a medication used by millions of Americans to manage diabetes.
The state is seeking court-ordered changes to the defendants’ business practices intended to bring insulin costs closer to fair market prices and expand patient options.
It also seeks restitution for Pennsylvania consumers allegedly harmed by the pricing practices, along with civil penalties and litigation costs.
“Millions of Pennsylvanians have diabetes or prediabetes, and they were all potentially harmed by this scheme to artificially inflate pricing to maximize company profits,” Sunday said.
The allegations have not been established in court, and the filing does not constitute a judicial finding that the companies engaged in unlawful conduct.
The lawsuit carries significant implications for prescription drug pricing in Pennsylvania, where approximately 1.3 million residents have diabetes and another 3.5 million have prediabetes, according to figures cited by the attorney general’s office.
Diagnosed diabetes accounts for an estimated $16.4 billion in annual costs in Pennsylvania, reflecting the broader financial burden associated with the disease.
For patients who require insulin, prescription costs can represent a recurring expense, making the pricing arrangements between manufacturers and pharmacy benefit managers a central issue in the state’s legal challenge.
The complaint seeks both financial recovery for affected consumers and changes to the practices Pennsylvania alleges contributed to inflated insulin prices.
The case places three major insulin manufacturers and several of the country’s largest pharmacy benefit managers under scrutiny in a state-level enforcement action targeting the structure of prescription drug pricing.
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