78 Time November 4, 2019
“People with diabetes experience different
issues and complexities that can’t be covered
by one solution, which is why we continue to
bring forth programs that will directly bene-
fit even more patients and work toward much
needed longer-term systemic reform,” said a
Novo Nordisk spokesperson in an email.
An Eli Lilly spokesperson told TIME in an
email that the company does not evergreen.
“None of our insulins is patent-protected
and our most commonly used insulin, Hum-
alog 100, lost patent protection in 2014,” the
spokesperson said. While the patent for Huma-
log 100 has expired, because of the complexi-
ties of entering the market, only one manufac-
turer jumped in to make a version of the drug:
Sanofi, which already makes its own formu-
lation. Sanofi’s “generic” version of Humalog
sells for just 15% less than its original price.
Eli Lilly is also manufacturing an “authorized
generic” version, currently selling for 50% of
the price.
A Sanofi spokesperson, meanwhile,
writes that the company’s original patent on
Lantus has expired and subsequent patents
“are related to new and unique inventions.”
They also point out that despite increases in
the listed price for Lantus, the actual price
customers pay is lower than it was in 2006, a
result of other inefficiencies in the market. The
spokesperson added that “we also support a
robust and competitive marketplace, including
efforts by other organizations to develop new
technologies and medicines—including Open
Insulin Project.”
For insured diabetics, the high costs of insu-
lin are borne primarily by their insurers, and so
remain more or less hidden. But for those with-
out insurance or for people on high-deductible
plans that require them to pay for their own
care until they hit a predetermined amount,
these prices take lives. Alec Smith, a 26-year-
old restaurant manager, couldn’t afford the
$1,300 a month it took to manage his diabetes.
In 2018, Smith was three days from a paycheck
when he died alone in his apartment; investiga-
tors later found an empty insulin-injection pen
in Smith’s home. The case made headlines, but
the human price of the high cost of insulin isn’t
hard to find. Some 13.2% of the 2.9 million peo-
ple who take insulin in the U.S. do not take it as
prescribed, and 24.4% asked their doctor for a
lower-cost medication, according to the CDC.
it’s not going to take a Nobel Prize to make
DIY insulin, just persistence. The good news
for the Open Insulin Project is that it has the
accomplished 33-year-old French biochemist
Yann Huon de Kermadec as its lead scientist.
He’s in the U.S. right now because his wife Lou-
ise Lassalle is studying for a Ph.D. at Berkeley.
Huon de Kermadec donates his time, showing
up at the lab five to six times a week to work
long hours designing a new form of life: a yeast
cell genetically engineered to produce a form
of insulin people could use.
On his side is the fact that biotech is getting
cheap. The same pressures that brought
down the cost of total gene sequencing from a
taxpayer-funded $2.7 billion project to a $200
drugstore test in under two decades mean you
don’t need millions of dollars to start a biotech
project anymore. The Open Insulin Project is
able to do what it does because equipment has
become so cheap—especially in the Bay Area,
where high turnover in the biotech industry
leads to a glut of second-hand, lab-quality
gear—and, like your home computer, more
powerful. There are now several companiesHuon de Kermadec,
lead scientist of the
Open Insulin Project,
at Counter
Culture Labs