California is going to make its own insulin.

[In It to Win It]

Gavin Newsom
@GavinNewsom
Governor candidate, CA

California is going to make its own insulin.

It’s simple. People should not go into debt to get life-saving medication.

Link to tweet

[Lovie777]

1. K & R . . .

[dalton99a]

2. Brilliant idea.

Make it cheap and plentiful

It is not rocket science

[YoshidaYui]

3. I LOVE my city

I LOVE MY STATE!

[vanlassie]

11. Me too!!!💃☀️🌈🚃😎

[YoshidaYui]

37. YAY!!

% **

[PortTack]

4. Great idea.....Hope other blue states will follow!

[Initech]

5. Proud to have Gavin as my governor!

[tinrobot]

6. This guy really needs to be president.

What a brilliant move, both for Californians and politically.

[onecaliberal]

7. Hell to the yes.

I hope other blue states will take a page. I also hope California doesn’t stop there, but will continue to innovate and show the world a better standard of living that helps everyone.

[wnylib]

24. I hope they sell to out of state people.

They could become the insulin center of the country.

[onecaliberal]

25. I hope they do too! The more the merrier. This is brilliant on so many levels.

I’m excited for what this can turn into.

[ShazzieB]

29. My God, yes!

If enough people did that, the big pharma companies would be FORCED to lower their prices.

Huit them right where it hurts: in the pocketbook!

[Wounded Bear]

34. Might take a while for that...

they'll probably focus on the need in-state first.

Still a great idea!

[onecaliberal]

47. Others can hopefully duplicate what we're doing here.

[tishaLA]

42. Yup. CA is able to do it feasibly because we have so many people

and smaller states would never be able to do it for the prices CA does, so it'd be nice if we made enough to sell it to other states that wanted to make large purchases.

And naturally the first thing Abbott and DeSantis would do is outlaw purchasing medications from CA under the pretense that they aren't safe.

[onecaliberal]

48. Even though millions of Californians will be safely taking it.

[Control-Z]

8. I really love my state and my governor!

Yes, you heard it here. I love Gavin Newson. I am so tired of people ragging on him. He's doing great things!

I believe Governor Newson will be president one day!

[The Wielding Truth]

9. Innovative act to make things work! That's the way our government should be.

[Just A Box Of Rain]

10. More accurately, CA is going to contract for the manufacture of insulin.

Given the life-saving necessity of this drug, and it's being out of patent protection, and the lack of price competition, this seems like a great move.

Democrats do best when we embrace competition and think innovatively.

This is both good policy and good politics.

Bravo Gov. Newsom.

[BadgerMom]

12. Gov. Newsom is 🎯.

Again!

[MsLeopard]

13. I love my state

And am so happy to live here for my granddaughter’s sake.

[malthaussen]

14. Novalin 70/30 OTC at Walmart, 25 bucks.

Same stuff, by prescription charged to insurance company: $165.00. I can verify this, since I got the very stuff yesterday with my new insurance and that was the price they charged them. My co-pay was 4 bucks.

I have no sympathy at all for insurance companies, but that is ridiculous.

-- Mal

[grantcart]

36. And you don't have to have a prescription. (I use it as a supplemental when glucose spikes)

Also under Humana Advantage (which is free) my monthly insulin is capped at $ 35/month

I think there is a huge disparity between D - 1 and D - 2 costs.

[FakeNoose]

15. Shame on the American pharmaceutical companies

They can make millions of doses of Oxycontin without batting an eye. But they can't make a life-saving product that's needed everywhere by multitudes of people.

What a horrible country we've become!

[Sanity Claws]

16. Next: epi pens

There are outrageous markups on epi pens too. People with allergies must always have one on hand. They usually have a couple at a time, located at different places, such as the home, purse, etc.

[TheRickles]

19. Joe Manchin's daughter was behind that one.

https://theintercept.com/2021/09/07/joe-manchin-epipen-price-heather-bresch/

[leftieNanner]

20. Thanks to Joe Manchins daughter

She was CEO of the company that manufactures the Epi Pen.

[iluvtennis]

17. Love it - my home state does good stuff for people.

[EnterwebsJohn]

18. Calinsulin - the new public utility. nt

[Sogo]

21. Impressive Governor!

Between this and his ads in Florida, he's revving up for a Presidential run some day....

[Hekate]

22. YES! My gov is brilliant

[RedSpartan]

23. SOCIALISM!

You can hear the right-wing nut jobs now. Delicious.

[azureblue]

26. the right wing

in the taker states... the states with higher death rates. with higher rates of obesity. with higher need for insulin. and that will never dawn on the RW voters

[Wounded Bear]

33. GMTA...my first thought also...

When the market fails the citizens, the government has a duty to step in and provide necessities.

[NBachers]

27. But think of the poor Pharma bro!

[Mr.Bill]

28. Cue the red states passing laws

prohibiting their citizens from buying it.

[rurallib]

31. or some kind of lawsuit that the SCOTUS will take up right away

[dchill]

30. What can I say. EVERY state needs a governor like him!

ESPECIALLY the red states. What is it that they're not getting?

[ultralite001]

32. On January 23rd, 1923, Banting...

Best, and Collip were awarded the American patents for insulin which they sold to the University of Toronto for $1.00 each.

[link:|]

About the sale of the patent of insulin for $1, Banting reportedly said,

“Insulin belongs to the world, not to me.”

For more of this story:

[link:https://bantinghousenhs.ca/2018/12/14/insulin-patent-sold-for-1/|]

[grantcart]

38. Ben Franklin refused to patent the lightning rod

Of course it helped sell his almanac

[Ms. Toad]

43. That insulin can currently be purchased for around $25 at Walmart, and many other places.

It is not perfect, but is as functional now as it was then, and provides an affordable option (albeit with much more hassle).

What is very expensive now are insulin analogs (synthetic insulins), which are not covered by the patent. It is easier to control diabetes using insulin analogs than it is with human insulin.

[dalton99a]

44. +1

[kimbutgar]

35. He was a great mayor and happy he's now our governor.

I laughed today that someone said he couldn’t be president because he had an affair while he was married the first time not knowing His wife was cheating on him not long after they got married and tell me again how many times has TFG cheated on his wives?

[flying_wahini]

39. A friend from New Zealand arrived in California and had lost his bottle of insulin.

The drug store charged him a Thousand dollars for it. It’s been about 7 years ago, but still.

[calimary]

40. Gavin! Run for President!

Too many of your ideas are too good not to go national!

[Ms. Toad]

41. Wonder if he will implement the same measures for all other life-saving medicine

My daughter is on a biologic which costs $200,000/year. It is no longer keeping her IBD in check, so she may have to halve the interval, doubling the costs to $400,000/year.

Neither insulin nor the biologic my daughter is taking are the only exorbitantly expensive life-saving medications.

While the very expensive insulin is preferred, earlier insulins are functional and far cheaper - why focus on insulin (which has a functional and affordable option) rather than other way more expensive medications for which there are no functional or affordable equivalents.

I have T1 insulin diabetics in my family and among friends and relatives - as well as a number of people who take biologics, or other expensive drugs. So I know both sides of this dichotomy.

I am also living with two cancers - and the "sexy" - less deadly one gets far more public attention and freebies than does the far more aggressive and deadly one. For example - I could have had a free breast reconstruction for not only to fix the invisible-when-I-am-wearing-clothes indent the breast from which they removed the tumor - but the other breast, as well, to make them match. Reconstruction of both breasts is treated as medically necessary and insurance has to pay for it (by law). BUT insurance treats as a cosmetic imperfection my 2.5" diameter "shark bite" with heavy stitching scars to 3.5" on my forearm which is visible every time I wear short sleeves. If I want it less obvious, I have to pay for the surgery to repair the damage left by the surgery to remove the tumor.

Sorry for kicking a gift horse in the teeth - but I'm tired of rare/orphan diseases, or less sexy diseases, receiving less medical care - and being subjected to different rules for insurance coverage.

[BannonsLiver]

45. This seems pretty popular

Only one person in the thread outright crapped all over the idea. A good sign, I think.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

46. Newsom is going to get a lot of orders from around the whole country.

I wonder if CA will become the new Capitol... We may be 3 hours behind DC, but we are leagues ahead of the country where it counts.

[calimary]

49. Yes indeed! West is Best.

Last edited Fri Jul 8, 2022, 04:02 PM - Edit history (1)

And that’s likely to be a boost to the California economy.

[Truth_Serum]

50. I'm very happy a politician is talking about this

and I wholeheartedly hope it comes to fruition. I've been an RN for 30 years....and the stories I could tell!! I've thought for DECADES that the gov't should go into making critical items that people need, especially for their health, due to companies that are charging extortion prices and basically killing people.

I think the gov't should cut the patents way down in terms of years/when generics can be produced, especially since the NIH is the world’s largest government funder of biomedical research.

I also think the gov't should be making a handful of critical medications, such as insulin, biologics - especially due to extreme price gouging, emergency medications like Epipens, orphan drugs [some may need to Google that] chemo drugs, and my real pet peeve - fluids like Normal Saline, Lactated Ringers [a.k.a. Ringer's Lactate] due to those companies price gouging and having "supply issues."

I'd even be happy for the gov't to get into baby formula production so another shortage like the one going on now never happens again. Think of all the jobs that would be created with everything I've just listed in this comment.

I know this is all "Pollyanna"-ish and almost 99% of my wish list will never happen. But that still doesn't stop me from wanting it to happen. I also wish for things like universal healthcare, guaranteed maternity/paternity leave, universal preschool, college or trade schools fully funded, guaranteed time off, etc. Basically, I should have been born in a Scandinavian country, lol.

[Just A Box Of Rain]

51. The CA state government will not be making the insulin.

The State of California is going to contract with a manufacturer to produce it.

[Truth_Serum]

52. Yeah, I know that

Still wish they would get into the manufacturing side of it, along with the other things I mentioned in my post. Wishful thinking!

[Magoo48]

53. Once again, happy to be a relatively free Californian.

[CTyankee]

54. I am SO GLAD that my transgendered grandchild lives there and will go to a state college there.

Her school was eager to offer her support through its own practices in the public schools. This is exactly what she needs going forward.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

55. Next, do epipens. (This is a happy, cheering 'whatabout') :)