What is the overall picture of Eli Lilly's controversies?
Two tracks: historical cases largely resolved (Zyprexa guilty plea, Streck Medicaid verdict), and ongoing structural litigation over whether insulin makers and PBMs jointly inflated list prices — a theory now expanding to GLP-1 drugs.
Lilly's controversies sit on two tracks. The first is historical and largely resolved: the Zyprexa guilty plea and the Streck Medicaid verdict show courts and prosecutors finding against the company. The second is ongoing and structural: litigation over whether insulin makers and PBMs jointly inflated list prices, and new disputes over GLP-1 pricing, compounding and advertising.
Lilly's supporters point to its 2023 insulin price cuts, its $35 cap and its expanded GLP-1 access deals as evidence of change. Critics argue that price cuts came only under legal and political pressure, and that the rebate-driven model that inflated insulin prices is now being replicated for GLP-1 drugs. For readers, the key question is whether reforms such as the FTC's PBM settlements over insulin will change that model.