COLUMBUS, Ohio — Columbus has now joined numerous other cities, counties and state attorneys general in suing drug companies and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) for “artificially raised prices on insulin products for decades,” City Attorney Zach Klein announced in a press release.

What You Need To Know

  • Columbus is joining many others in suing drug companies and pharmacy benefit managers for the raising of insulin prices

  • Cleveland also sued back in July

  • Napoli Shkolnik PLLC and Ventura Law will serve as special counsel to Columbus

  • The city states that drug prices have been rising “exponentially” even as the costs to manufacture them have been declining

“Price gouging people who need life-saving drugs like insulin is unconscionable. Drug manufacturers who conspired to drive up the price of insulin, pass the costs onto consumers, and pay off the pharmacy middlemen to look the other way need to be held accountable,” said Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein. “This unethical pricing scheme has cost Columbus taxpayers millions of dollars in exorbitant fees, and this lawsuit aims to recoup these costs.”

The City of Cleveland filed a similar lawsuit back in July. According to their own release at the time, they had been the first city in the country to do so.

Klein’s release states that Napoli Shkolnik PLLC and Ventura Law will be the city’s special counsel and that these services will incur no cost to Columbus.

Some of the lawsuit’s defendants include:

  • Eli Lilly
  • Novo Nordisk
  • Sanofi-Aventus
  • CVS Health
  • CVS Pharmacy
  • Caremark Health
  • United Health Group
  • Express Scripts Pharmacy

“A recent analysis found that from February 2020 to November 2023, the City of Columbus spent at least $26 million on diabetes medications and supplies as part of the healthcare plans for the city’s 9,000 employees—far more than it should have due to the alleged price gouging and kickback scheme,” the release reads.

The city states that drug prices have been rising “exponentially” even as the costs to manufacture them have been declining.

They say the price of some insulin has gone up by more than 1,000% in 25 years

“Across the board, companies named in the lawsuit raised prices dramatically and often in tandem with each other, even going so far as to raise prices by the same percentage within days of each other,” the release reads. “The City alleges that this shadow pricing scheme was a deliberate attempt by competitors not to price compete against one another.”

They city said there are not currently any hearing dates scheduled for the lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court of New Jersey.