INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita has filed a lawsuit against Eli Lilly and Company, alleging that the drugmaker has conspired to raise prices on insulin medications for individuals with diabetes.
The lawsuit was filed in Lake County on Dec. 31, 2025, according to court documents.
This comes after Rokita filed an insulin-related lawsuit against multiple other drug manufacturers and pharmacy benefit managers in March 2024, claiming that they had violated the state’s Deceptive Consumer Sales Practices Act.
In the initial lawsuit, Rokita’s office listed Lilly as a “co-conspirator in the pricing scheme.” However, at that time, Lilly was not named as an official defendant in the lawsuit “due to its communications and purported willingness to continue discussions directly with the State.”
Since then, that initial lawsuit was transferred to be a part of a federal insulin multidistrict litigation case that is currently pending in New Jersey.
This matter against Lilly is now being brought up as a separate lawsuit in an Indiana state court, since the state no longer has jurisdiction over the initial lawsuit, which is now a federal case.
The court documents state that since that initial lawsuit was filed, the state of Indiana has had “ongoing and productive discussions” with Lilly. The lawsuit claims that Lilly has “ultimately failed to make progress.”
The lawsuit against Lilly claims that the company used a drug distribution scheme reliant upon Pharmacy Benefit Managers to “raise prices on insulin medications more than 1000% in the last decade alone.”
“Drugs that were priced at $20 when released in the late 1990s, Eli Lilly now prices between $300 and $700,” the documents said. “Insulins cost Eli Lilly less than $2 to produce. Raising prices lockstep, Eli Lilly has extracted illegal profits from the State and its citizens.”
The lawsuit claims that the company violated the Indiana Deceptive Consumer Sales Act as well as the Indiana Medicaid False Claims Act and the Indiana Antitrust Act. The lawsuit aims to prevent the company from engaging in any alleged activity in violation of these acts as well as “obfuscating or otherwise manipulating prices and payments made for diabetic products.”
A news release from Rokita’s office states that other lawsuits, including the one currently in New Jersey federal court, have prompted manufacturers to “substantially reduce prices.” Rokita’s office believes this new lawsuit will help “drive structural market changes, along with damages and penalities to benefit affected consumers and ensure lasting accountability.”
“Pharmaceutical companies should not take advantage of Hoosiers or any other American—this includes Lilly, regardless of its Indiana roots,” Rokita said in the release. “For two years, I attempted to resolve this matter with them amicably and without litigation—an effort not required by the state and one not afforded to Lilly’s out-of-state competitors. Lilly, which maintains by far the largest market share for insulin, rejected this outreach and consumed two years of time. Not to worry—we intend to have Indiana added to the ongoing multistate litigation, where we will share in the results of evidence already uncovered and any settlement or judgment.”
In a statement from Eli Lilly, the company provided the following comment in regards to the lawsuit:
“It is unfortunate that the Indiana AG would decide to spend state resources on such a wasteful lawsuit and sue an Indiana company that has led the way in making insulin more affordable for Americans,” the statement from a Lilly spokesperson read. “Similar cases by other plaintiffs have either been dismissed, dropped or settled for no money after years of costly litigation.
“Lilly is confident in the strength of our legal position and we are proud of our strong record of insulin affordability solutions that have made a real impact for Hoosiers and all Americans,” the statement continued. “Lilly was the first company to cap what patients pay at $35 per month for all our insulins, we cut insulin prices by 70%, and in 2024 the average monthly out-of-pocket cost for Lilly insulin was less than $15. Years before any AG filed an insulin pricing lawsuit, Lilly collaborated with the federal government to pave the way for lower Medicare insulin prices. In addition, since 2020, Lilly has committed more than $50 billion in U.S. manufacturing investment, including $13.5 billion in Indiana, to create high-wage, advanced manufacturing, engineering and science jobs for American families.”
