The World Health Organization announced it will begin testing and approving generic versions of insulin in an attempt to drive down prices, The New York Times is reporting.
WHO, a United Nations agency, plans to encourage makers of generic drugs to enter the market and increase competition. Three companies — Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi — dominate the world's insulin market right now, according to the newspaper.
The Times noted the price of a vial of insulin in the United States has risen from $35 to $275 over two decades.
"The simple fact is, that the prevalence of diabetes is growing, the amount of insulin available to treat diabetes is too low, the prices are too high, so we need to do something," said Emer Cooke, director of Regulation of Medicines and other Health Technologies at WHO.
The newspaper noted substantial shortages of insulin are developing in poorer nations.
The WHO approval process will allow UN agencies and medical charities to purchase approved generic versions of insulin. And it will reassure countries without strong regulatory agencies that the approved drugs are safe to purchase, according to the Times.
Cooke speculated that WHO could spur the entry of generics into the U.S. market by coordinating with the Food and Drug Administration to "raise confidence in products we'd approved."
In the last 35 years, the number of people worldwide with diabetes has quadrupled to 400 million, said Dr. Gojka Roglic, the WHO's chief of diabetes management guidelines.
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