Seven months after California launched the first state-branded prescription drug label in the country, health officials say more than 120,000 five-pen packs of CalRx insulin glargine have been distributed at a suggested retail price of $55. What the state cannot say is how many of those packs reached a patient. It does not track dispensing.
That gap is the clearest available measure of a program that has moved product into the supply chain faster than it has moved insulin into households. Reporting by KFF Health News found a pharmacist at a San Francisco Walgreens stocking two boxes of the state's pens without having dispensed any. Pharmacist Margaret On said keeping them on hand was worthwhile because "it's good to have if a patient comes in and doesn't have health insurance."
