CRAWFORDSVILLE, Ind. (WISH) — For 13 years, Molly King has depended on an insulin drug to manage her Type 1 diabetes. On Dec. 31, that drug will be wiped from the market.

King, who lives in Crawfordsville, was 18 when she was first diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. After much work with a medical team, she was prescribed long-acting insulin drug Levemir. She also takes a short-acting insulin medication.

Levemir’s manufacturer announced it would discontinue the drug in 2023. The company cited “manufacturing constraints” at the time of the announcement.

When King first heard the news, panic set in.

It is difficult to begin taking a different medication to treat diabetes, due to logistics and the way bodies adapt to medicine, King said.

“It is not an easy process to change all of that based on my insurance, and just what my body is used to, because your body does acclimate to medication,” King said.

King spent days working with her medical providers to find what new long-acting medication she would begin taking. She was also forced to change her short-acting insulin due to the shift.

Then came another round of bad news: the new drug would be extremely expensive.

“There have been times in my life where I have not been able to afford my medication and it has landed me in the Intensive Care Unit for weeks on end and in a diabetic coma,” King said.

At least one of every two people across the world don’t have access to insulin and other resources they need to sustain their life, King said. That’s what fuels her to advocate with nonprofit T1International for a true insulin price cap nationwide.

All insulin is owned by three major companies in the U.S., including Novo Nordisk, Sanofi, and Lilly. King says this allows the three giants to price the medication however they choose.

“We advocate because having a healthy body, having access to affordable health care should be a human right within our country, and within our society,” King said.

As November’s election inches closer, the issue is taking center stage.

“Both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party have claimed that they have taken the price of insulin down to $35 across the country, that is actually not the case,” King said. “They have provided a Medicare and Medicaid copay cap.”

Current legislation sets a copay cap for Medicaid and Medicare recipients at $35.

“That is just for Americans that are on either Medicare or Medicaid,” King said. “There is no overall price cap of any type of insulin in the United States.”

She and her fellow advocates are adamant the issue of insulin prices be viewed not as a party issue, but as a people issue as they call on a universal price cap.