[OldTimeCoffee]

Novo Nordisk (the maker of the newest insulin Levemir) spends about 17.8b kroner a year on R&D (or about 12.6% of their revenue). Levemir was introduced in 2005; they've long since made up any R&D costs. The first synthetic insulin (Humulin) is from 1978. These aren't new medications, even Lantus is over 20 years old. The R&D costs don't factor into the price they charge at this point.

[9991]

Making up the R&D costs is not the appropriate benchmark. The companies need a profit to justify the tying up of that capital for a long time.

> (Humulin) is from 1978

Great, so it's off patent now? Serious question: where's the generic humulin?

[OldTimeCoffee]

https://academic.oup.com/jlb/article/7/1/lsaa061/5918811