PBMs respond to Diabetes Association call for 'supply chain transparency'

A leading trade group representing the pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) industry in the USA has responded to a report from the American Diabetes Association (ADA), which it says “confirms that drugmakers set, and continue to raise, prices.”

Published in Diabetes Care to coincide with ADA chief scientific officer William Cefalu’s testimony before a US Senate Special Committee on Aging, the paper documents a recent rise in insulin prices, finding that the average price of insulin nearly tripled between 2002 and 2013.

The ADA estimates that diabetes, already the most expensive chronic illness in the USA, has a total cost of more than $327 billion per year, including $15 billion for insulin.