California to start selling $11 insulin pens in January
California will start selling state-branded insulin pens in January, cementing a 2023 promise Gov. Gavin Newsom made to tap the state’s financial resources and create its own generic drugs.
Starting Jan. 1, CalRx, the state’s generic drug label, will sell insulin pens for roughly $11 apiece or $55 for a pack of five, Newsom told reporters Thursday.
“This is part of a new initiative to fundamentally lower health care costs, not spread health care costs,” he said during a press conference at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. “One of the things that all of us should be increasingly concerned about is announcements around caps, announcements around discounts, announcements that fundamentally are simply subsidizing a direct cost and socializing the total cost to you and me and the entire healthcare system.”
In 2023, Newsom announced the state had partnered with drug manufacturer Civica to produce its own insulin as the lifesaving drug had skyrocketed in price, leading some diabetics to ration or forgo their daily shots. The same year, the Biden White House announced it was capping insulin prices at $35 for some seniors on Medicare.
California blew past its initial self-set deadline of offering insulin by 2024, which experts told CalMatters was likely due to manufacturing costs and the slow pace of clearing federal hurdles and bringing a drug to market.
During his first gubernatorial race, Newsom pledged to be the “health care governor” by creating the nation’s first state single-payer health care system, saying it would help bring down costs for residents.
On Thursday, he teased that California was considering producing its own diapers and inhalers after claiming victory as the state has moved to offer its own naloxone, an overdose-reversing drug, and now insulin.
“This is part of a larger mosaic of reforms that simply are not happening or taking shape anywhere else in the United States,” he said.
This story was originally published October 16, 2025 at 1:19 PM.
