California governor vetoes bill to cap insulin prices at $35 per month

Cal­i­for­nia Gov. Gavin New­som ve­toed a bill that would have capped in­sulin prices at $35 per month, cit­ing his ex­ist­ing plan to make Cal­i­for­nia’s own brand of cheap in­sulin called Cal­Rx.

In his ve­to mes­sage re­leased Sat­ur­day, New­som said low­er­ing the price of pre­scrip­tion drugs is an on­go­ing pri­or­i­ty for him and that peo­ple shouldn’t have to go in­to debt to pay for life-sav­ing drugs. But he tout­ed the state’s ex­ist­ing part­ner­ship with Civi­ca, a non­prof­it man­u­fac­tur­er, to cre­ate a line of biosim­i­lar in­sulins cost­ing $30 for a 10mL vial and $55 for five 3mL car­tridges, a so­lu­tion he thinks is more sus­tain­able than cap­ping co­pays.

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