Sugar, Sugar

10% of Americans have diabetes. Native Americans and people from Hispanic or Black backgrounds are more likely to have the condition. Such groups are also less likely to have health insurance. A number of diabetics are unhappy with the proposed terms of 'build back better'. This (if it ever materialises?) contains loopholes but would cap the cost of insulin at $35 only for individuals with health insurance (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/04/insulin-copay-biden-build-back-better). Type 1 diabetes is the worst variety, as people with this condition produce no insulin to control their blood sugar levels. They consequently need daily insulin injections to stay alive or avoid blindness/amputations. Currently, 1.4 million US adults have this condition but the figure is projected to rise to 5m by 2050. There seems to be something of a scandal around the supply of US insulin? Insulin is a hormone not a created drug. It can currently be easily produced, using GM technology (rather than having to be obtained from the pancreas of slaughtered animals). Insulin was 'discovered in 1926 by Banting and Best. They 'sold' its patent for a nominal $1, because they thought it unethical to make money out of illness. Novo Nordisk, Sanofi-Aventis and Eli Lilly currently control most of the US's insulin market. The price has rocketed in recent years. One vial of Eli Lilly's Humalog insulin cost $21 in 1999. In 2019, same vial cost $332. The price also depends on which country you live in. The average price of 1 unit of insulin in the US is almost $99. In Canada and the UK a unit costs respectively $12 and less than $8. Rather obviously, some people think that the current 'build back better' proposals on insulin, simply facilitate, what they feel, is a scam by the pharmaceutical companies. Diabetes is the most expensive disease in the US. Americans with diabetes pay 2.3 times more for healthcare insurance than people without the condition. Given the prevalence of the disease, insulin ought to be cheap and relatively freely available.