For Australian diabetes patients the insulin Fiasp is $31.60 on the PBS, but Americans pay $930, while the medication Jardiance is $619 to $698 in the US compared to again $31.60 for the 220,000 Australians who access it. (I'm on Jardiance)
How is it even possible to afford $800 for insulin? It boggles the mind
Credit cards
Please support the Open Insulin Foundation who are creating an open source model for insulin production! Such an important project!
this feels a bit like open source software, just that the software involved is genetic code, which codes for a protein.
It is! They're trying to "compile" insulin on the smaller scale. Not home labs but local production. They haven't managed it yet but I believe they will eventually.
Capitalism is economic terrorism.
It's almost like someone should go and shoot the CEO dead in the street
Technically a funnel system for 1%.
It is widely available, just not in the US
Meanwhile, 10 euros per vial here in Europe. At least his original plan for widespread and easy availability has partially succeeded.
In civilized countries at least.
In brazil 36 reais (about 6 euro). The US is a joke. (And im 99% sure you can also get it for free if you use the public health network)
I have mental health disabilities in the USA and my meds are at zero cost because I literally have had absolute zero income for the past 5 years.
You wouldn't believe how much those mood stabilizer/antidepressant cocktails stack up proportionally when I was able to scrape by on $15 an hour.
The system set me up to fail with how shitty it is, if healthcare wasn't crap I could be contributing to society without crippling myself.
The drug I have to take to live costs anywhere from $4,000-$5,500/month without insurance. This is actually cheaper than what I was on before—a cocktail of 4 drugs, some taken multiple times a day, that was almost $10,000/month. I’m lucky(?) that there are a ton of programs that together cover the cost for me. Unfortunately there are hoops I have to jump through every month to continue qualifying for the assistance and have to regularly take time off from work to make the appointments. I’ve lost jobs due to this, but am currently working a position where my manager is happy enough with my work to fudge time cards to help me out.
I hate this country.
I’m not diabetic and the situation with insulin fills me with a white hot rage.
If you talk about killing the few people like these that are the root cause of all these problems, you're a terrorist. You go to jail
These people actually kill people by the thousands, millions, and we call them smart CEO's and celebrate them 🥂
Free Luigi.
Canadians: invented drug and patent it freely
Americans: Finds way to kill the most people possible while making the most amount of money
To be fair, the killing isn't the point; they're the product. Its just that profit is God, so killing in its name is justified.
Killing poors for the joy of it? That's just an evil bonus.
Remember Remember the 4th of December 
Making an AI meme of Luigi as a Saint is one thing.
Making a painting and having it casually displayed in your room is a whole other level.
Also, I can't believe it's already been a year.
Yea I guess but my mom was destroyed by our cruel and heartless system. She’s gone now but painting this helped me reconnect with the glimmer of hope we all felt for a moment after this happened. It also helped process the trauma I myself went through as her caregiver not being able to access what she needed
Welcome to USA, I guess.
In other countries, you could probably completely fill a fridge with insulin for $800.
If you need a lot of different prescribed drugs then £114.50/year to cover every prescription you have is an option here. Otherwise £9.90 each.
I genuinely think that in some third world countries, as part of the middle class, you can have a better life than in the USA.
Something I've noticed is when untraveled people in the USA try to contextualize themselves with other countries they pick the worst examples they can think of. Favelas in Brazil or slums in South Africa for example. We do this to the point where our entire conception of countries (or in the case of Africa, continents) is the worst imagery we can think of. I think they genuinely don't believe that, for all their troubles India, Brazil, Mexico, Nigeria, etc also have smartphones and big buildings and libraries and universities and laboratories, and educated people living decent lives.
They also can't see how the overcrowded jails full of pretrial prisoners, the barefoot children carrying buckets for water in Appalachia, the rundown schools full of illiterate kids, the impunity of rich private interests, the corrupt sheriffs and judges, and on and on, puts us in the company of the "third world countries". Yes we have nice places too, but SO DO THEY. A broken society in the 21st century isn't people living in mud huts, it's children shitting in the street next to a glass skyscraper with LEED Platinum certification.
If he wanted it to be freely available, why did he even sell the patent ? Just disclaim at the patent office. Selling is just asking the new holder to start enforcing.
They sold the patent to the University of Toronto, so they didn't exactly sell it to a for-profit patent troll.
But also, that was in 1923, so the patent has long since expired.
They also don't make insulin the way that he did back then. Not justifying the price hike cause the way its made now is way cheaper than it was with the old method (which was basically grinding up animal parts to extract insulin). These fucks are just profiting off of the suffering of Americans who have literally no choice but to use their drug.
In Canada it is still considered expensive, but not even close to $800/month. It's only considered expensive because most shit like that is free or a very nominal fee, but repeated need is what it is.
California is contracting its own insulin supply and it'll be available for $11 a pen starting Jan 1, 2026. I know not every state can or are willing to do this but just throwing out some examples and hopefully optimism to somehow fight the American decline from within it. We're in a unique position as our state economy is larger than most countries but I am hopeful we will throw our weight around to counter the bs. https://www.chhs.ca.gov/blog/2025/10/17/governor-newsom-announces-affordable-calrx-insulin-11-a-pen-will-soon-be-available-for-purchase/
I wonder if all the sane Americans did a mass exodus to Canada, Europe, UK, Australia etc, what effect that would have
A lot of us would need financial sponsorship. So there'd be a literal financial drain on those economies.
I still would like to sign up.
Not if you stayed, then it’s an investment. Money doesn’t just disappear when goes to poor people, they use it to buy things like food and stuff. It would only be a financial drain if you were sending that money back home.
The North American mind cannot comprehend the benefits of supporting the poor.
Invented by a Canadian, exploited by an American.
A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.
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This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.
