Congressman aims to break pharma’s insulin ‘pricing monopoly’ by legalizing Canadian imports

U.S. legislators have been introducing bills left and right proposing a variety of methods for bringing down drug prices. Now, Vermont's congressman is zeroing in on a specific class of diabetes medicines that he says have become far too expensive: insulin. Rep. Peter Welch introduced a bill on Wednesday that would make it legal for patients, wholesalers, and pharmacists to import insulin from Canada, and eventually from other countries with acceptable safety standards. Welch, a Democrat, announced the bill during an event at a health center in Burlington, Vermont.
"This commonsense legislation bypasses big Pharma's pricing monopoly by making available to patients safe, lower-cost insulin,” Welch said in a statement. The congressman added that insulin prices “have gone through the roof and are hammering” patients.
Welch didn’t pick on any pharma companies by name in his statement, but U.S. insulin suppliers are already well aware of heightened scrutiny on their pricing in Washington. In late January, the House Energy and Commerce Committee and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee sent letters to Sanofi, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly raising questions about rising insulin prices. Welch is a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee.