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‘The Cost of a Standard Unit of Insulin’ Claim A social media post by Sen. Bernie Sanders accurately lists the price of a standard unit of insulin in the US and other developed nations. Rating True Like this fact check? Reporting On March 22 2021, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) published a Facebook post and tweet purportedly listing the cost of a standard unit of insulin in the United States, and comparing it to the same standard unit in other developed nations: The cost of a standard unit of insulin:00 🇦🇺 $6.940 🇬🇧 $7.520 🇫🇷 $9.080 🇩🇪 $11.000 🇨🇦 $12.000 🇯🇵 $14.000 🇺🇸 $98.7000 Our job: End the greed, collusion and price-fixing of the pharmaceutical industry and substantially lower drug prices. — Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) March 22, 2021 Both posts had identical content: The cost of a standard unit of insulin: Florida is where wokes go to die... Please enable JavaScript Florida is where wokes go to die 🇦🇺 $6.94 [Australia] 🇬🇧 $7.52 [United Kingdom] 🇫🇷 $9.08 [France] 🇩🇪 $11.00 [Germany] 🇨🇦 $12.00 [Canada] 🇯🇵 $14.00 [Japan] 🇺🇸 $98.70 [United States] Our job: End the greed, collusion and price-fixing of the pharmaceutical industry and substantially lower drug prices. Sanders’ list sorted countries from the purported lowest cost of a standard unit of insulin (Australia at $6.94) to the highest (United States at $98.70); Japan’s entry at second-most expensive involved a cost of $14. No source for the figures was part of either post. A search for some of the included figures led to an October 2020 tweet from the RAND Corporation, a public policy think tank. All figures but one were identical to the content of Sanders’ March 2021 posts, as Japan’s cost per unit was originally listed as $14.40, not $14: Average price per unit across all types of #insulin in 2018: 🇺🇸 $98.70 🇯🇵 $14.40 🇨🇦 $12.00 🇩🇪 $11.00 🇫🇷 $9.08 🇬🇧 $7.52 🇦🇺 $6.94 New analysis: https://t.co/Mzl7T9oX1U — RAND Corporation (@RANDCorporation) October 8, 2020 The RAND Corporation tweet linked to an October 2020 research summary called, Comparing Insulin Prices in the United States to Other Countries, Results from a Price Index Analysis. That summary provided context for the figures, which contrasted insulin cost averages for Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member countries as of 2018: Insulin prices have increased dramatically over the past decade in the United States. In this report, the authors compare international prices for insulins using a price index approach. They describe the shares of volume and sales for all insulins and different categories of insulin (including insulin type and timing characteristics) in the United States and 32 comparison Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries in 2018. For the market basket of insulins sold in both the United States and comparison countries, the authors report ratios of U.S. insulin prices to insulin prices in other countries. They found that manufacturer prices in the United States were considerably higher (often five to ten times higher) than those in other OECD countries for all insulins combined and for different types of insulin. Although the authors focused their analysis on manufacturer prices rather than on net prices after potential rebates, the analysis suggests that U.S. insulin prices would still have been considerably higher — about four times higher — than those in other countries even when accounting for potential rebates. A subsequent section titled Key Findings maintained: Although the ratio of U.S. to other-country prices varied depending on the comparison country and insulin category, U.S. prices were always higher (often five to ten times higher) than those in other countries. U.S. prices were higher for analog versus human insulins in nearly all comparison countries. The overlap between the presentations of insulin sold in the United States and comparison countries was generally high, although there were differences in market shares across categories of insulin. The United States was unusual among comparison countries in permitting distribution of several types of insulin over the counter. However, U.S. manufacturer prices were still much higher than those in comparison countries even in categories in which U.S. distribution is entirely over the counter. Although the authors focused their analysis on manufacturer prices rather than on net prices after potential rebates, the analysis suggests that U.S. insulin prices would still have been considerably higher — about four times higher — than those in other countries even when accounting for potential rebates. Those findings were also featured in a research report prepared by the group for the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Comparing Insulin Prices in the U.S. to Other Countries. On page 10 of the report, a table was prefaced with the following text: Average Prices per Standard Unit Compared with other countries, and in each insulin category, the United States had dramatically higher prices. The average U.S. manufacturer price per standard unit across all insulins was $98.70, compared with $6.94 in Australia, $12.00 in Canada, $7.52 in the United Kingdom, and $8.81 across all non-U.S. OECD countries combined (Figure 2.8). Average prices in the United States and most comparison countries were higher for analog insulins than for human insulins. As Figure 2.9 shows, average prices in the United States were highest for rapid acting insulins (at $119.36 per standard unit versus $8.19 in non-U.S. OECD countries) and lowest for intermediate-acting insulins (at $73.56 per standard unit versus $5.98 in non-U.S. OECD countries). (See Table A.3 for full results.). Specific figures in the tweet and post were in the next table, Figure 2.8. Average Price per Standard Unit, by Insulin Type, Selected Comparisons, 2018. Nearly all figures in the first portion of the table, all [types of insulin,] matched Sanders’ tweet and Facebook post from March 22 2021, but Japan’s all figure was listed as $14.40, versus an even $14. Sanders’ The cost of a standard unit of insulin posts were largely accurate, based on September/October 2020 RAND Corporation figures prepared for the Department of Health and Human Services. Those figures were identified by RAND as accurate for the year 2018, but they were published in late 2020. Although the figure for Japan was off by 40 cents in the posts, the dollar amount ($14) was accurate — as were the balance of prices cited in the posts. Posted in Fact Checks Tagged bernie sanders , cost of insulin , hhs , Insulin , viral facebook posts , viral tweets
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