California to offer $55 insulin pens, challenging big pharma

Sacramento, California – California is officially getting into the drug business — and taking aim at Big Pharma in the process.

Starting in January, the state will begin selling its own low-cost insulin through a program called CalRx, making it the first in the nation to sidestep pharmaceutical giants and offer a state-branded version of one of the most essential and expensive drugs on the market.

The insulin pens, manufactured through a partnership with the nonprofit Civica Rx, will be priced at no more than $55 for a pack of five, a steep drop from the $89 to $400 price range typically charged by brand-name competitors. Pharmacies will be able to purchase the pens for $45 and sell them at the state’s suggested retail price.

“California didn’t wait for the pharmaceutical industry to do the right thing — we took matters into our own hands,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement. “No Californian should ever have to ration insulin or go into debt to stay alive — and I won’t stop until health care costs are crushed for everyone.”

The move marks a significant win for Newsom, who launched CalRx as part of a broader push to reduce health care costs and increase access. It also reflects California’s larger political identity — one defined by bold, often self-reliant public policy experiments. Just as former Gov. Jerry Brown once promised the state would build its “own damn satellite” to monitor climate emissions, Newsom’s administration is now making good on its pledge to manufacture essential medicine outside the private market.

Insulin has long been a symbol of America’s broken health care system. Discovered over a century ago, the drug remains indispensable to millions of people with diabetes. Yet, for decades, the price of insulin skyrocketed as pharmaceutical companies — Eli Lilly, Sanofi, and Novo Nordisk among them — were accused of coordinating price hikes and exploiting patients’ dependence on the medication.

A class-action lawsuit in 2017 alleged that these companies raised prices by as much as 1,000% over a decade, forcing many diabetics to ration doses or turn to unsafe alternatives. In 2024, the federal government sued pharmacy middlemen, accusing them of helping inflate costs further.

Both Donald Trump and Joe Biden have since claimed partial victories for capping insulin prices under Medicare at $35 per month, but for most Americans without that coverage, the drug remains costly. Newsom’s initiative is designed to close that gap — at least for Californians.

The CalRx insulin rollout is the result of a $50 million deal between the state and Civica Rx, which built a manufacturing plant in Petersburg, Virginia, and partnered with Biocon Biologics to produce the first batch of long-acting insulin, a generic version of Sanofi’s Lantus known as Glargine. Two other insulin types — Aspart and Lispro — are expected to follow.

The announcement arrived sooner than expected; officials had suggested earlier this year that it could take years to get the necessary federal approvals. Instead, the CalRx launch will make California a national test case for public manufacturing in health care — and a potential model for other states grappling with the same crisis.

Beyond insulin, CalRx is already expanding into other life-saving drugs, including a low-cost naloxone to reverse opioid overdoses and a planned bulk-purchase program for asthma medication. Newsom has also floated using the program to stockpile abortion medication, underscoring his administration’s willingness to push beyond traditional state boundaries on public health policy.