Earlier this month, Eli Lilly agreed to significantly lower the price of its most common insulin products. Last week, Novo Nordisk followed suit and announced that it will be lowering prices on four of its most popular insulin products.

It’s positive news for many diabetics, and any development that grants easier access to insulin is cause for celebration. But we shouldn’t lose sight of the whole picture. Even the reduced prices are still prohibitive for some diabetics, and the products are still far more expensive than they are in other countries. Additionally, not all diabetics use the type of insulin suddenly put on sale. These remaining shortcomings reveal the fundamental problem: for-profit companies should not have ownership, and control the pricing, of this lifesaving drug.

The moves by Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk are not spontaneous acts of willing generosity. They’re a concession to activists who’ve waged a yearslong campaign to publicize the truth about the United States’ insulin problem. The situation is so bad that diabetics have resorted to rationing insulin and buying it on the black market. Six states, most recently California, are suing the three drug companies that dominate the market over the illegal practices that overcharge patients for insulin. Meanwhile, the insulin cap provisions in the recent Inflation Reduction Act are barely a Band-Aid on the out-of-control problem.