SACRAMENTO — California will contract with drugmaker Civica Rx to produce its own low-cost insulin, Gov. Gavin Newsom planned to announce Saturday. He also plans to unveil future plans for the state to also manufacture Naloxone, a drug for reversing opioid overdoses.
Newsom planned to announce the insulin contract at an event near Los Angeles. The partnership will make California the first state to manufacture prescription drugs through its own label, CalRx. “People should not be forced to go into debt to get life-saving prescriptions,” Newsom said in a statement. “Through CalRx, Californians will have access to some of the most inexpensive insulin available.”
Civica Rx had already announced plans to produce $30 vials of insulin, which Newsom’s office says will be the price of the drug produced under the contract.
About 7.4 million Americans with diabetes rely on synthetic insulin to regulate their blood sugar. People with type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease that prevents the body from making the blood sugar-regulating hormone, must take insulin daily to survive and can go through multiple vials per month. People with type 2 diabetes still produce some of their own insulin, but also rely on synthetic insulin.
Source: sfchronicle
