The Michigan Supreme Court ruled July 31 that the state’s attorney general may continue pursuing an investigation into Eli Lilly’s insulin pricing practices under the Michigan Consumer Protection Act, reversing lower court rulings that had blocked the case.
In a 4-3 decision, the court overruled its prior decisions in Smith v. Globe Life Insurance Co. and Liss v. Lewiston-Richards, holding that courts must determine whether the specific conduct at issue, rather than a company’s generally regulated business activity, is specifically authorized by law when deciding whether the consumer protection law applies.
Michigan’s fight with Lilly dates back to January 2022, when Attorney General Dana Nessel first sought court approval to investigate the drugmaker, noting at the time that the average out-of-pocket cost of a vial of insulin was nearing $100. A court initially authorized the probe, but the case was dismissed in 2022 and that dismissal was affirmed by the Michigan Court of Appeals in 2023, setting up the appeal the state just won.
The ruling lands amid a broader wave of insulin-pricing litigation against Lilly and its PBM counterparts. Missouri’s attorney general sued 19 manufacturers and PBMs in January, alleging some insulins were priced at $300 to $400 per vial in the state while selling for less than $5 abroad. Days earlier, Philadelphia-based Jefferson Health filed its own federal suit alleging Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi coordinated with CVS Caremark, Express Scripts and OptumRx to inflate list prices while collecting undisclosed rebates. Texas Health Resources in Arlington brought a similar claim last spring, alleging the same six companies colluded to raise insulin prices by as much as 1,000% over two decades.
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