Table 3.
Outpatient Retail Insulin Prescriptions by Insulin Type, Names, Manufacturer, Mean Cost per Prescription Fill, and Percentage of Total Insulin Prescription Fills and Costs, in 2019
| Type | Insulin prescriptions by type (unweighted n = 5741) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Classification | |||||||
| Generic name | Product name* | Manufacturer | Mean payment per prescription fill | % of insulin prescriptions | % total insulin payments | ||
| Unadjusted† | Adjusted‡ | ||||||
|
Rapid acting Short/intermediate Acting |
Aspart | Novolog | Novo Nordisk | $1089 | $860 | 17.1 | 25.2 |
| Novo FlexPen | Novo Nordisk | $356 | $281 | 0.6 | 0.3 | ||
| Fiasp | Novo Nordisk | $1253 | $990 | 0.2 | 0.0 | ||
| Aspart | Novo Nordisk | $67 | $53 | 0.2 | 0.0 | ||
| Lispro | Humalog | Eli Lilly | $816 | $645 | 15.2 | 16.6 | |
| Admelog | Sanofi-Aventis | $233 | $184 | 1.7 | 2.2 | ||
|
Short/intermediate acting Long acting |
Regular insulin/NPH | Humulin R/N | Eli Lilly | $914 | $722 | 5.2 | 6.6 |
| Novolin R/N | Novo Nordisk | $271 | $214 | 4.5 | 1.8 | ||
|
Long acting Ultralong acting |
Glargine | Lantus | Sanofi-Aventis | $565 | $446 | 20.7 | 15.5 |
| Basaglar | Eli Lilly | $380 | $300 | 9.0 | 5.3 | ||
| Toujeo | Sanofi-Aventis | $902 | $713 | 3.4 | 4.6 | ||
| Glargine | Eli Lilly/Sanofi-Aventis | $201 | $159 | 0.7 | 0.3 | ||
| Solostar | Sanofi-Aventis | $245 | $194 | 0.3 | 0.1 | ||
| Detemir | Levemir | Novo Nordisk | $680 | $537 | 9.9 | 9.3 | |
| Ultralong acting | Degludec | Tresiba | Novo Nordisk | $1088 | $860 | 6.5 | 10.1 |
| Unknown | Insulin, misc | N/A | N/A | $456 | $360 | 0.5 | 3.1 |
Source: Authors’ calculations from the 2019 MEPS. Figures are weighted to be nationally representative
*Name reported in MEPS data file
†Average of amounts that individuals and their insurers paid per prescription fill
‡Adjusted downward by 21% to account for estimated prescription drug rebates for all payers combined