It’s a race against time to find a cheaper form of insulin for millions of diabetics.
Area Representative Mike Kelly has sent a letter to the Food and Drug Administration asking to speed up approval so drug companies can offer a generic form of insulin, which could cut the cost in half.
The cost of insulin has jumped 600 percent in the last twenty years. Many patients take less insulin than they should to save money.
Kelly said the time to act is now. “We don’t want somebody running out the clock on us and saying ‘geez, I wish you would have gotten to us early,’ so we’re getting in there early. We’re saying ‘get back to us quickly on this.’ We want to make sure if there’s something that could be done, that it gets done,” said U.S. Representative Mike Kelly.
The way the law currently stands, companies may not be able to offer generic insulin until March 2020.