Drugmaker Eli Lilly announced it will greatly reduce the cost of many older types of insulin used to treat diabetes. Lilly says for those with health insurance or Medicare, their monthly cost should be no more than $35. Dr. Daniel Hsia, with the LSU Pennington Biomedical Research center in Baton Rouge says this is tremendous news; especially for Type 1 diabetics.

“Insulin IS the treatment for Type 1 diabetes. For those families who have children with Type 1, I think this is another huge victory.”

Louisiana has one of the nation’s highest rates of diabetes by state. Dr. Hsai says the disease is especially high among lower-income households. He says Lilly’s move comes at a good time, as inflation makes it tougher to make ends meet.

“This is really welcome news for all of our patients with diabetes, who we take care of…and especially for those in underserved areas and those who don’t have insurance.”

The American Diabetes Association says over a half-million Louisianans suffered with diabetes. That’s over 14-percent of the population. Hsia says he hopes to see Eli Lilly’s example become an industry standard.

“I think there ARE ways to cap prices; to make specific insulins more available to the populations that really need it.”

Eli Lilly says they will also make savings cards available to diabetics who do not have health coverage.