Latest / Rick Outzen: (we don’t) color on the dog / Insulin at 1,000% Markup
Transcript
- speaker-0: it St. Paddy's Day has nothing to do with my next guest, but he is always th he's my favorite Irishman. We've got Troy Rafferty on the phone. Good morning, Troy. speaker-1: I'm looking for speaker-0: Forward to Friday. Yes. Yes. Listen first of the month we got news that that Eli Lilly was cutting the price of insulin from about seventy percent price cut. I know your firm, Levin Papantonio Rafferty, has been involved in class action suits against the producers the manufacturers of insulin because the prices have been so high. tell us a little bit about the background of the case that y'all are putting together. And does this with them Eli cutting the price, does that make your case move? speaker-1: No, not at all. In fact, it's it's actually kind of just a a a facade or putting a band-aid on a compound fracture. it's not really going to change anything what they're doing right now. The reality is they've been, you know, the listen, diabetes is an epidemic in our country. There's thirty four million people who have diabetes, eighty eight million are pre diabetic. It's the seventh leading cause of death in America. And this is what th th this is what these companies have done. It's increased the prices. These three, so three companies, Rick. Three companies control ninety nine percent of the market in the country. Wow. Three three pharma companies, three pharmaceutical companies control ninety nine percent of the the market, and they can control it. And you'll see since two thousand three, if you look at what's happened since two thousand three, they have increased the price of insulin a thousand percent. Wow. Over a thousand percent. And they are pr you know, there's a great quote from the doctor who developed and patented insulin and he said he sold it to a university for one dollar. Because he said, insulin insulin doesn't belong to me, it belongs to the world. Well evidently these three companies believe it belongs to them and all these executives sitting in these offices And these boardrooms have been preying on the sick and the ill. And it's just it's it's atrocious what they've done. How they've how they've gotten together and they've increased the prices to the point where diabetic families are spending forty percent of their post subsist subsistence income on insulin. Parents are having to ration out insulin to their children. Because they have to have it and they can't afford it. And yet these companies just keep kept year after year after year increasing the prices and it's atrocious speaker-0: Wow, well so if they've in you know, since in the last twenty years they increased their price a hundred a thousand percent, a seventy percent cut is nothing to them. They're still making. speaker-1: It is nothing. In fact, if you look at the research, most of the researchers that have looked at this, I mean it costs it costs less than I mean, it's pennies to produce this. It's less than two dollars. Some researchers have said they could turn a profit, they charge hundreds of dollars for for for a vial of insulin, yet they could it costs pennies on the dollar to produce. Wow. They could make there was one there was one study that was done that showed that they could be making a very hefty profit if they charge two dollars a vial. And it's just they they this is another and it's really this is just a symptom. This is a symptom of the greed of the pharmaceutical industry. We see it time and time and time again where these pharmaceutical companies are preying on the sick. They're preying on the ill. They're preying on people who need things. Now one other interesting thing is You can get insulin in every other country for far less. Wow. Far less. Far less than the what they're even now even with this make believe pay cut, you know, or rate cut. yet here in America we have to char the you know, the pharmaceutical companies get away with charging outrageous prices for medicine, including life saving insulin. speaker-0: Yeah, we got with us Troy Rafferty. He's an you know one of the shareholders, one of the on the nameplate of Levin Papantonio Rafferty law firm. They're one of the the largest, most successful mass tort law firms in the country. always in you're always I like to talk with you just because y'all are always on the cutting edge of of of the next big case. Do you see this as a big case with insulin? How many people are y'all thinking or have been you know, d had to deal with these hiked up prices for insulin. speaker-1: i it it's it's it's at epidemic levels, Rick. Like I said at the beginning, there's thirty four million Americans have diabetes. Eighty eight million Americans are pre diabetic. And they and they have to have you know, these diabetics have to have the insulin. They have to have it to survive. And so these pharmaceutical companies just decide, well, they have to have it to survive, so let's just jack up the prices. And it's resulting in Literally, as I said, parents rationing or individuals individuals also just having to ration out insulin. Even though they need it, they have to ration it out because they can't afford it. I mean it's costing thousands and thousands of dollars for these for for diabetics to get their insulin. speaker-0: Troy, where where is this case? Where what what phase are y'all in on this? speaker-1: Well, we're doing we're we're we we are in the discovery phase. We're gonna be getting we're gonna be pursuing, you know, getting the documents. We're gonna go inside their file cabinets. We're gonna go inside the file cabinets in the board meeting board meeting minutes and we're gonna find out exactly what was you know w what we already know and that is that these companies in in lockstep decided to just keep increasing the prices to increase their their their their their profits so they can buy more Armani suits and Gucci loafers and you know, all this stuff that that's what the th that's what this is gonna show. speaker-0: In essence th they knew they had a they had a captive market that absolutely needed the insulin. They drove up the price knowing that this would be something that they could get away with. and apparently y'all have been successful at least in putting pressure for Eli even at this penance of a cut, is still somebody got to They're they're trying to figure out how to redeem their image. speaker-1: Yeah, yeah, and it's it it's you know, and I you know, it's a cliche, but it's too little too late. It's still too little. I mean this th there there's still no reason why they should be charging the amount they're still charging and it's too late. I mean, many of these many of these people have been suffering for decades over the cost of their insulin. And so, you know, to sit here and now go, well, you know, we'll cut it we'll cut it down some is is is is Honestly, it's despicable. I mean it's a step in the right direction. I'll I'll I'll say that, but it's not nearly enough. It's gotta keep going. speaker-0: All right, great. Troy, thank you so much for coming on this morning. speaker-1: Thanks, Rick. I've always enjoyed being on the show. speaker-0: Yeah.