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“Move to the back if you’ve lost your life savings to the drug companies,” shouts a woman walking by your correspondent.
走過記者身旁的一位女士喊道:“如果你因為制藥公司而失去了一生的積蓄，請到后面排隊?！?/p>
A spirited group follows her to the end of a long queue for a Senate hearing on insulin prices on May 10th.
5月10日，一群精神抖擻的人跟在她后面，排著長隊等待參議院關于胰島素價格的聽證會舉行。
In the room David Ricks of Eli Lilly, a large American drug firm, testifies that insulin, used to regulate blood-sugar levels for diabetics, is cheap and even free in some instances.
在會議室里，美國大型制藥公司—禮來制藥廠的大衛·瑞克斯作證說，用于調節糖尿病患者血糖水平的胰島素很便宜，在某些情況下甚至是免費的。
“If you contact Lilly today, we will ship you a month’s supply at no cost with one question: ‘What’s your address?’” he says.
他說：“如果你今天聯系禮來，我們會給你寄一個月的貨，不會收費但有一個問題:‘你的地址是什么? ’”
Those dressed in gear with slogans like “Insulin for All” shake their heads in disbelief.
那些穿著“全民胰島素”等標語的人懷疑地搖頭。
Drug companies may be offering cheap insulin, but it is not reaching all patients.
制藥公司可能會提供便宜的胰島素，但并不是所有的病人都能買到。
The high price of drugs is a long-running grievance for Americans—and insulin is a flashpoint, since more than 8m of them depend on it to survive.
高昂的藥價導致了美國人長期以來的不滿，而胰島素是一個引爆點，因為超過800萬美國人依賴胰島素生存。
A standard unit that costs on average $9 in other rich countries sets Americans back $99.
一份標準的劑量在其他富裕國家的平均價格是9美元，而美國人卻要花99美元。
A study in 2021 in the Annals of Internal Medicine, a journal, found that 1.3m people skipped or reduced insulin doses due to cost.
2021年發表在《內科醫學年鑒》雜志上的一項研究發現，130萬人因成本原因不用胰島素或減少了胰島素劑量。
According to GoodRx, a company that helps customers find low drug prices, the average cash price of insulin rose by 54% between 2014 and 2019.
據幫助客戶尋找低價藥品的公司GoodRx稱，2014年至2019年間，胰島素的平均現金價格上漲了54%。
The price then dropped by 11% between January 2020 and May 2023.
在2020年1月至2023年5月期間，價格下跌了11%。
Despite the recent dip, insulin prices remain high.
盡管最近價格有所下降，但胰島素價格仍居高不下。
For older patients, the cost is now coming down.
對于老年患者來說，費用正在下降。
The Inflation Reduction Act, one of President Biden’s landmark laws, allows Medicare to negotiate with manufacturers for lower drug prices.
《降低通貨膨脹法》是拜登總統里程碑式的法律之一，它允許聯邦醫療保險與制造商協商降低藥品價格。
It also requires companies to pay back Medicare if prices rise faster than inflation, and it capped insulin prices at $35 a month for Medicare.
它還要求，如果藥品價格上漲快于通貨膨脹，公司就必須償還聯邦醫療保險，它還將聯邦醫療保險的胰島素價格限制在每月35美元。
The new law seems to have nudged drug companies into offering lower prices for everyone.
新法律似乎促使了制藥公司為每個人提供更低價格的藥品。
On March 1st Eli Lilly announced an automatic $35-a-month cap on all insulins for those with private insurance at select pharmacies, and a similar programme for the uninsured.
3月1日，禮來公司宣布對那些在特定藥店購買私人保險的人每月自動收取35美元的胰島素費用，對沒有保險的人也實行類似的計劃。
The firm also promised to sell one of its non-branded insulins for $25 a vial, from May 1st.
該公司還承諾從5月1日起以每瓶25美元的價格出售一種無品牌胰島素。
Sanofi, a French drug company, followed suit with a similar deal for one of its insulins, starting next year.
法國制藥公司賽諾菲也緊隨其后，從明年開始對其一種胰島素進行類似的交易。
Novo Nordisk, a Danish firm, likewise announced lower prices for 2024.
丹麥諾和諾德公司同樣宣布會在2024年降價。
