Napoli Shkolnik Files Insulin Pricing Scheme Complaint on Behalf of Cattaraugus County, New York Against 19 Major Players in Pharma Industry

Complaint Claims Opaque, Conspiratorial Kickback Scheme Exponentially Increased Defendants’ Profits at the Expense of Plaintiff, its Plan Members and Other Payers

Napoli Shkolnik has filed a Lawsuit on behalf of Cattaraugus County, New York, against numerous defendants, including the three dominant insulin manufacturers – Eli Lilly and Company, Novo Nordisk Inc. and Sanofi-Aventis U.S. LLC – and three major pharmacy benefit managers: CVS/Caremark, Express Scripts and OptumRx.

Cattaraugus County claims the defendants - all major players in the pharma industry - engineered these price increases via an opaque, conspiratorial kickback scheme (referred to in the lawsuit as the “Insulin Pricing Scheme”), which has exponentially increased their profits at the expense of payors like Plaintiff and its plan members. The Insulin Pricing Scheme is a multibillion-dollar industry with many of the corporate defendants listed in the top 20 of the 2022 Fortune 500 list. The price range for insulin today can range from $300 to $700 despite costing manufacturers as little as $2 to produce.

Six claims for relief are included in the lawsuit, among them: Violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”); Violations of New York General Business Law N.Y; Breach of Contract and Unjust Enrichment.

One in four healthcare dollars is spent caring for people with diabetes. Approximately 1.7 million people in New York, or 10.7% of the adult population, have diabetes. An additional 5.2 million New Yorkers are prediabetic, with blood glucose levels higher than normal but not yet high enough to be diagnosed as diabetic. In Cattaraugus County, approximately 21,000, or 7.8%, of adult residents are living with diabetes. Accordingly, in New York alone, diabetes costs an estimated $15.1 billion per year in direct medical expenses for diagnosed and undiagnosed diabetes, prediabetes, and gestational diabetes.

The Plaintiff has requested a jury trial.

ABOUT NAPOLI SHKOLNIK

Napoli Shkolnik is a national litigation firm providing representation to persons in class action lawsuits and complex commercial cases, as well as victims of environmental contamination disasters, aviation accidents, defective prescriptions drugs and medical devices, asbestos-related illnesses, and other serious personal injury matters.

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