California Selects Civica Rx as Its Insulin Manufacturing Partner
March 18 2023 - 04:08PM
Business Wire
Californians with diabetes will have access to
Civica’s low-cost insulins via the CalRx Biosimilar Insulin
Initiative
CalRx will work with Civica to provide the most
commonly used short- and long-acting insulins at planned prices of
no more than $30 a vial and $55 for a box of five pre-filled
pens
Civica Inc. (Civica, Civica Rx) today announced it will
manufacture insulins for the State of California’s CalRx Biosimilar
Insulin Initiative as part of its insulin manufacturing work. Once
approved, Civica’s biosimilar versions of the most commonly used
short-and long-acting insulins will be available to Californians
and nationwide at significantly lower prices than insulins
currently on the market. The availability of these insulins will
benefit Californians with diabetes who have been forced to choose
between life sustaining medicines and living expenses.
“Diabetes has become an overwhelmingly expensive chronic
condition, and it is heartbreaking that millions of people in
California and across the U.S. are faced with the possibility of
having to ration their care and put their lives at risk because
they can no longer afford insulin,” said Ned McCoy, President and
CEO of Civica. “We applaud California for its mission-driven
commitment to lowering the cost of insulin and look forward to our
groundbreaking partnership on behalf of people living with
diabetes.”
With a significant $50 million dollar investment towards the
development, manufacture and distribution of Civica’s low-cost
insulins, California is stepping up to collaborate on this effort
with partners that represent nearly every corner of the diabetes
ecosystem, including the diabetes community, philanthropists,
hospital systems, payers, clinical trial experts, drug substance
manufacturers and leading pen and vial manufacturers. All partners
are aligned with the goal of making low-cost insulins available to
people living with diabetes.
“California’s partnership with Civica is a game changer,” said
California Governor Gavin Newsom. “We are proud to be working with
Civica to bring true price competition into the insulin drug market
and ease the financial burden for Californians living with
diabetes. Reducing the high cost of insulin is a critical step
toward addressing health inequities and ensuring affordable and
accessible health care for all.”
Civica will produce three insulins – glargine, lispro and aspart
(biologics corresponding to, and expected to be interchangeable
with, Lantus, Humalog and Novolog, respectively) – each of which
will be available both in vials and prefilled pens under the CalRx
label. Civica and CalRx have the mutual goal of ensuring access to
affordable insulins that have single, low transparent prices. As
such, CalRx insulins manufactured by Civica are expected to have a
manufacturer suggested retail price of no more than $30 per 10 mL
vial and no more than $55 for a box of five 3 mL pre-filled pens, a
significant discount to prices charged to uninsured individuals
today.1 At these prices, insured Californians who currently pay
cost sharing amounts for their insulin will also experience overall
savings.
The next phase of this partnership is assessing options for the
standup of an insulin manufacturing facility in California and
further efforts to disrupt the insulin market and provide
additional benefits for patients who depend on this life saving
drug.
More information on this initiative, including additional
information on Civica’s partners, can be found at
https://civicainsulin.org.
About Civica
Civica Inc. (Civica Rx, Civica) is a nonprofit, 501(c)(4) social
welfare organization established in 2018 by health systems and
philanthropies to increase the reliability of the drug supply
chain, reduce drug shortages and related high prices in the United
States. An experienced team of healthcare and pharmaceutical
industry leaders is at the helm of the organization.
Today, more than 55 health systems have joined Civica. They
represent more than 1,550 hospitals and one-third of all U.S.
hospital beds.
To lower the cost of medications for consumers at the pharmacy
counter, Civica has created an outpatient entity, CivicaScript, in
partnership with Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) and 18
Independent BCBS health plans, Elevance Health and other
organizations focused on innovation in health care. CivicaScript
recently launched its first medication for consumers – abiraterone
acetate 250 mg – to help treat patients with prostate cancer.
Civica’s mission is to ensure that quality generic medications
are accessible and affordable to everyone. From the beginning, the
No. 1 Policy for the Civica family has been “Do What Is in the Best
Interest of Patients.”
Civica is building an essential medicines manufacturing facility
in Petersburg, Virginia, to produce sterile injectable medications
used in hospitals for patient care, emergency room and
intensive-care unit treatments, surgeries, and to treat other
serious conditions. This facility will manufacture insulin vials
and prefilled pens for nationwide distribution, with manufacturing
test runs expected to begin in late 2023.
About CalRx
CalRx represents a groundbreaking solution for addressing drug
affordability. Originally announced in January 2019 in Governor
Newsom’s first Executive Order and later signed into law in the
California Affordable Drug Manufacturing Act of 2020 (Pan, SB 852,
Chapter 207, Statutes of 2020), CalRx empowers the State of
California to develop, produce, and distribute generic drugs and
sell them at low cost.
The State will target prescription drugs where the
pharmaceutical market has failed to lower drug costs, even when a
generic or biosimilar medication is available.
Compared to traditional procurement of prescription drugs, CalRx
seeks deep, mutually beneficial partnerships with companies that
share the State’s goals.
1 Based on a publicly available current average list price of
glargine (Lantus), lispro (Humalog) and aspart (Novolog) on
https://www.goodrx.com/ on February 28, 2022.
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Debbi Ford (970) 227-3991 Debbi.Ford@CivicaRx.org