“Four metro Detroit counties filed federal lawsuits Wednesday against some of the nation’s biggest pharmaceutical manufacturers and pharmacy benefit managers alleging illegal price fixing for insulin products,” Christina Hall writes for the Detroit Free Press. “Macomb, Monroe, Wayne and Washtenaw counties filed the lawsuits in U.S. District Court in New Jersey against more than a dozen companies, including Lilly, Sanofi Aventis, Novo Nordisk, Express Scripts, Optum Rx and CVS Caremark, per their attorneys. ‘These are the first such lawsuits that have been filed in the state of Michigan and probably more to come,’ said attorney Melvin Butch Hollowell of the Miller Law Firm. He described the allegations during a news conference, saying that nationally ‘the pharmacies and manufacturers get together. They control about 90% of the market each, of the insulin market. They talk to each other secretly. And they jack up the prices through anticompetitive means. And what we’ve seen is over the past 20 years, when we talk about jacking up the prices, they jack them up 1,500% in the last 20 years. 1,500%.’ ‘It has cost millions and millions of dollars out of the coffers of municipalities throughout the state, and we’re asking for injunctive relief,’ he said.” Christina Hall, “4 metro Detroit counties sue pharmaceutical makers to recover insulin costs,” The Detroit Free Press.