Billionaire Elon Musk’s changes to social media giant Twitter are already costing some companies billions in total stock value.
Pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly (LLY) dipped 4.37 per cent Friday to US $352.30 — erasing over US $15 billion in market cap — after a Twitter Blue verified account impersonating the brand promised free insulin.
The imposter’s tweet, sent around 1:30 p.m. Thursday, read: “We are excited to announce insulin is free now.”
The tweet, sent around 1:30 p.m. Thursday, read: “We are excited to announce insulin is free now.” The post remained online for hours, attracting over 3,000 likes and hundreds of retweets.
As of Friday, the impostor account @EliLillyandCo is no longer verified, its tweets have been set to private.
The official Eli Lilly account responded Thursday afternoon with an apology, confirming that “Our official Twitter account is @LillyPad.”
The company joins the scores of other blue check marks plagued by parody accounts after Musk announced a new policy allowing anyone to buy “verification” for $8 a month. Pranksters impersonating celebrities, brands and even Musk himself have flooded the site with unflattering messages since the update launched Wednesday.
In response, Musk has reportedly suspended Twitter Blue sign-ups as of Friday afternoon, less than 48 hours after the launch. The move was to “help address impersonation issues,” according to an internal memo obtained by Zoë Schiffer of Platformer.
Confused users can tell who was verified before Twitter Blue and who paid $8 for the privilege by clicking on the checkmark in people’s profiles. Musk also confirmed the rollout of “official” badges for notable companies and other entities — a grey badge found under the user’s name.
Eli Lilly, along with drugmakers Novo Nordisk and Sanofi, currently dominate the insulin market. Together, they account for the entire insulin supply in the U.S. and 90 per cent worldwide.
The three people who discovered insulin, a life-saving drug, originally sold their patents to the University of Toronto for $1 each. One of the team members, Sir Frederick G. Banting, remarked: “Insulin does not belong to me, it belongs to the world.”
Eli Lilly was the first company to mass-manufacture insulin, shipping its first commercial supply in 1923. In 2022, the company charges $82.41 for individual vials of their Insulin Lispro Injection, or $159.12 for a pack of five pens.
The company hasn’t responded to the Star’s requests for comment by the time of publication.
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