Texas Health Resources is suing major insulin manufacturers and pharmacy benefit managers over alleged artificial price inflation.
The North Texas hospital system joins the list of over 400 companies, unions and local governments that have filed similar suits in New Jersey District Court. The defendants include pharmacy benefit managers CVS Caremark, Express Scripts and OptumRx and insulin manufacturers Sanofi, Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk.
The lawsuit claims the companies colluded to drive up insulin prices by as much as 1,000% over the past two decades despite stable production costs.
“These price increases do not derive from the rising cost of goods, production costs, investment in research and development, or competitive market forces,” the lawsuit reads. “Instead, defendants engineered them to exponentially increase their profits at the expense of payors like [Texas Health Resources].”
More than 300 of the 400 groups that have filed their own lawsuits have done so since early December. Attorney Mark Pifko with Baron & Budd, who represents the plaintiffs in the multi-district litigation, said the initial wave of cases may have influenced others to join.
“I think people are waking up to this issue,” Pifko said.
The lawsuit seeks to recoup the excess millions of dollars that Texas Health Resources says it spent per year to “provide overpriced insulin to its 40,000 health plan beneficiaries,” according to a press release.
Asked for comment, Texas Health Resources directed KERA News to attorneys representing them.
Companies implicated in the lawsuits have called them “baseless” and “meritless” in separate statements to Benefitspro.com.
Insulin pricing litigation is also the subject of four class action suits and 16 lawsuits filed by state attorneys general, including Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. He alleges the businesses violated the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
He accused the companies in an October press release of a “disturbing conspiracy” to “intentionally and artificially” inflate insulin prices.
“Big Pharma insulin manufacturers and PBMs worked together to take advantage of diabetes patients and drive prices as high as they could,” Paxton wrote.
This story was updated at 10:05 a.m. CST April 14, 2025, to better reflect the list of 400 local governments, unions and companies that have filed lawsuits.
Got a tip? Email Kailey Broussard at kbroussard@kera.org.
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