Eli Lilly CEO says insulin tweet flap “probably” signals need to bring down cost

Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks defended his company's pricing but conceded that it could be lower.

Ricks said that it probably shows that we have more work to do to bring down the cost of diabetes care.

He made his comments at an event held by Stat News this week. Eli Lilly did not respond to Ars' request for more information about what work the company will do to lower prices.

Just a few days ago, Ricks' comments were made after a fake-but-blue-checkmarked account pretending to be Eli Lilly made a false announcement about the availability of Insulin.

Eli Lilly tried to get it taken down, but it was too late. According to a report from The Washington Post, there was panic within Eli Lilly as staff tried to contact employees but didn't hear back for hours. Ricks acknowledged this week that the company had a hard time getting the account taken down.

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We wanted to correct it quickly. He said it probably didn't happen fast enough. It shows some of the challenges on that platform.

The real company took matters into its own hands and apologized to those who had been deceived by a fake Lilly account. There is an official account for us. It didn't do much to quell the outrage, with people saying "apologize to diabetics for price gouging" and "Why don't you make affordableinsulin instead of apologizing?".

The frustration with US drug pricing stems from the fact that it's a cheap drug to make and it's unique. A recent study found that 1.3 million Americans ration theirinsulin and that many patients with diabetes can easily see bills in the hundreds of dollars a month.