US Insurers Dropping Coverage of Sanofi's Lantus -- Market Talk
DOW JONES & COMPANY, INC. 10:07 AM ET 9/22/2016
Symbol Last Price Change
SNY 38.58down +0.2 (+0.52%)
UNH 141.17up +1.26 (+0.9%)
QUOTES AS OF 01:39:48 PM ET 09/22/2016
10:07 ET - Sanofi(SNY) is the latest drug maker to suffer a counterpunch from US health insurers and drug-benefit managers trying to control rising prescription costs. UnitedHealth(UNH) plans to remove the Lantus long-acting insulin from its preferred drug list in April, according to Leerink, following a similar exclusion by CVS. Instead, UNH members can use Lilly (LLY) and Boehringer Ingelheim's copycat version of Lantus--which is set to go on sale later this year. Lantus had about $4.5B in 2015 US sales, and the investment bank expects about a 15% drop this year and 25% more in 2017 due to the new competition. (peter.loftus@wsj.com; @Loftus)
