The Salem News on how insulin price drop is welcome, but just a beginning:

It is difficult to see the recent decision by the drug giant Eli Lilly to lower the cost of its life-saving insulin products as anything but good news. And while the news is welcome, it also serves to highlight long-standing imbalances in the drug market that no amount of good publicity can undo.

There is still much work to be done before one of the nation’s oldest, most effective and widely prescribed drugs can be considered medicine and not a corporate profit center.

First, credit where credit is due: Eli Lilly struck a major blow for fair pricing when it announced last week that it planned to slash the prices of its two insulin drugs — Humalin and Humalong — by more than 70% starting in October. The company also plans to expand an insulin-aid program that caps costs for patients at $35 or less per month.

“While the current healthcare system provides access to insulin for most people with diabetes, it still does not provide affordable insulin for everyone and that needs to change,” Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks said in a statement.

He’s right. But that doesn’t mean the powers that be at Eli Lilly are operating out of the goodness of their hearts. There has been increasing pressure from President Joe Biden and many members of Congress to take action against the artificially high cost of the 100-year-old drug used by more than 8.4 million Americans.

The cost of insulin nearly tripled over the last 20 years. A vial of insulin can cost as much as $250, while a pack of insulin pens can run as much as $500. A person with type 1 diabetes will spend an average of $6,000 a year on insulin, according to the Health Care Cost Institute.

While insurance covers the costs for many Americans, the gaps — and inequity — in the system are apparent.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

Three companies — Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi — control 90% of the nation’s insulin production, and they have fought efforts to provide less expensive but equally effective alternatives. And they’ve profited from each other’s avarice . ...

That is starting to change. Efforts to create a widely available generic alternative are gathering steam, and several states have set their own price caps, or even produced their own insulin . ...

Congress nearly passed legislation capping insulin prices for private insurance last year, before Republicans stripped the measure from the Inflation Reduction Act.

Biden, however, revived the issue, using his State of the Union address this year to urge lawmakers to cap insulin prices at $35 for everyone, regardless of insurance status . ...

As Vermont Democrat Bernie Sanders, chair of the Senate health committee, said, “People with diabetes should not be forced to pay $98 for a vial of insulin that costs just $8 to manufacture and can be purchased in Canada for just $12.”

It is a far distance from the spirit of Frederick Banting, who discovered and developed insulin more than a century ago. Banting refused to put his name on the patent for the drug, feeling it was unethical to profit from a medicine that could save lives.

A single company cutting the cost of the drug isn’t a solution: It’s a starting point.