This Week at Rotary

Jason Consalvo presented the final two scholarship awards to Mia Silva and Emilio Saez-Gonzales who are excited to go to Amherst College and UMass Lowell, respectively.

Eric Moyal on Making Insulin Affordable

During his presentation, Eric Moyal, Founder and Executive Director of Project Insulin, shared the urgent need to make insulin more affordable for the millions of Americans who depend on it. He highlighted the staggering reality that nearly one in five insulin users ration their medication because of cost, while insulin prices in the United States remain significantly higher 57 Dearbthan in comparable countries. With the number of people living with Type 1 diabetes expected to continue rising, he emphasized that affordable access to insulin is more important than ever.

Eric explained how Project Insulin is tackling this challenge through a nonprofit model focused on developing its own biosimilar insulin glargine. Unlike traditional pharmaceutical companies, Project Insulin's mission is to provide high-quality insulin directly to patients at cost, without the pressure to generate profits for shareholders. He stressed that the organization's sole focus is lowering insulin prices and ensuring patients have reliable access to this life-saving medication.

He also shared the remarkable growth in community support for the organization, with fundraising increasing dramatically over the past several years. Looking ahead, Eric outlined the next milestones for Project Insulin, including completing strain development, advancing drug development, meeting with the FDA, expanding the team, and raising the funding needed to bring affordable insulin to market.

Eric concluded by sharing his vision for the future: insulin priced at approximately $30 per vial—about one-tenth of what many patients currently pay—with the potential to save patients more than $100 million in the first year of commercialization and hundreds of millions of dollars annually as production scales. His presentation underscored that making insulin affordable is an achievable goal when innovation, collaboration, and patient-centered priorities come first.