Price Pact with a Devil

The break in the Eli Lilly Company’s monopoly of the insulin industry came circa 1997, from the Lilly company itself in a situation like following national news by watching Jay Leno monologs.
I received an important notice from the pharmaceutical company. I was on ancient mailing lists, mostly from syringe manufacturer BD. The Lilly Company was concerned about me and wanted to remind me about the dangers of making changes to insulin outside doctor supervision. They didn’t send me such a notice when they caused diabetics who could not afford doctors when they eliminated the availability of beef and pork insulin, but they had become aware of a new peril to diabetics everywhere.
After years of monopoly and manipulation by the Lilly Company, the Humulin patent had run out. Wal-Mart’s pharmaceutical division had produced a generic.
Diabetics needed this urgent reminder for their own health and well being. They should not change insulin to a potentially unreliable product. The letter had a bunch of scare tactic propaganda in it. I choose to curtail memory to avoid incorrect memory or embellishment, but the bottom line message was one that indicated that Wal-Mart was the mortal enemy of diabetics everywhere. And as reward for being a "loyal Lilly customer," the mailing included a coupon for $5 (maybe it was $10...old memory again) off any purchase at K-Mart.
In the time since two-eye blindness onset by a dose of the Lilly product Cialis, the Lilly Company started manufacturing the generic insulin for Wal-Mart. Maybe it was even longer than that; time flies and remembering exactly has that jarring realization that a "four year old" never-seen cousin is actually now in college. The price has gone up a couple times since then, but remains less than $25.00 as opposed to the $50.00+ of non-generic.
To the best of my knowledge, the generic is still exclusively available only at Wal-Mart; I have not re-checked that fact since the last time I was away from home and needed insulin on the spot. The generic is packaged under Wal-Mart’s Reli-on "brand."
I know of and agree with many criticisms of Wal-Mart’s corporate practices. Electronics and powered devices often have models numbers or price bar codes that are exclusive to Wal-Mart while the same item has the same bar code at every other store. Despite quality or social issues regarding their employees, Wal-Marty earned considerable loyalty from me. Wal-Mart stood up to at least this one pharmaceutical giant in a way that only another corporate behemoth can successfully do. Wal-Mart has saved me thousands in the past 15 or so years, and I have never felt as if I had gotten a bad vial.
It also is apparent to me that Wal-Mart’s $4 prescription program also triggered a small pharmaceutical revolution that has been of direct benefit to American consumers. Pharmacy chains have had to come up with similar programs to stay competitive. This reaped benefits for private consumers and Medicaid programs. I lament the blow to smaller mom-and-pop pharmacies, but the competition brought too much gain to too many people for me to join any Wal-Mart protest movement.
Wal-Mart is the giant corporate enemy that is in front of our faces, an obvious enemy. I’d prefer to save my revolutionary’s energy for the less obvious enemies such as pharmaceutical companies who disguise their pursuits of corporate profit under distractions like "it’s so dangerous to change away from our product lightly."