Civil RICO Lawsuits in 2025: How Much of the Jump Came From Insulin Pricing Cases
Original analysis of 16,227 records from the Federal Judicial Center, FY2010–FY2025 (federal fiscal years, Oct–Sep). Published October 17, 2026.
We counted every civil RICO filing in U.S. district courts from fiscal 2010 to fiscal 2025 in Federal Judicial Center records and separated the insulin pricing cases against drugmakers and pharmacy benefit managers.
What the federal court records show
Insulin pricing cases accounted for 28.3% of federal civil RICO filings in fiscal 2025: 455 of 1,608 filings, almost all of them in MDL No. 3080 in New Jersey. RICO filings rose by 711 from fiscal 2024; the insulin cases account for 53.2% of that rise, while all other RICO filings grew by 40.6%.
- 28%Share of FY2025 civil RICO filings: insulin pricing
- 53%Share of the FY2024–FY2025 rise from insulin cases
- 1.8×Civil RICO filings, FY2025 vs. FY2024
Insulin cases were more than a quarter of RICO filings
Of 1,608 civil RICO filings in fiscal 2025, 455 were insulin pricing cases, up from 77 of 897 (8.6%) in fiscal 2024.
They explain about half of the jump
Total RICO filings rose by 711, or 79.3%. Insulin cases added 378 of them; the other RICO filings rose from 820 to 1,153.
One month carried the wave
In January 2025 alone, 290 insulin pricing RICO filings were recorded, 63.7% of the fiscal year's total and 75.1% of all RICO filings that month.
Public bodies filed most of them
School districts and other education bodies filed 220 of the insulin filings, counties 64 and cities 46. Altogether, public entities account for 75.8% of the insulin filings by our classification.
Eli Lilly is named first in nearly all
Eli Lilly and Company is the first-named defendant in 438 of the 455 filings; a pharmacy benefit manager is named first in 17. The court data record only the first defendant, so co-defendants are not counted.
Still below the opioid peak
Fiscal 2025 had the most civil RICO filings since fiscal 2019. Fiscal 2018 had 2,238, of which 906 belonged to MDL No. 2804, the opioid litigation against makers and distributors such as Purdue Pharma and AmerisourceBergen.
How Many Civil RICO Lawsuits Were Filed in 2025
Federal district courts received 1,608 civil RICO filings in fiscal 2025, which ran from October 2024 through September 2025.
That is 1.8× the 897 filings of fiscal 2024. In the series that begins in fiscal 2010, only fiscal 2018 (2,238) and fiscal 2019 (1,813) had more.
Civil RICO suits are filed under the private right of action in the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1964(c), which lets a person injured in business or property sue for three times the damages. On the civil cover sheet they carry nature-of-suit code 470.
Big jumps in this category have come from mass litigation. In fiscal 2018, 906 of the 2,238 RICO filings belonged to MDL No. 2804, whose first-named defendants include opioid makers and distributors such as Purdue Pharma and AmerisourceBergen. In fiscal 2025, the insulin pricing litigation accounted for 455 filings, 378 more than in fiscal 2024. Without those, RICO filings still rose from 820 to 1,153, an increase of 40.6%.
Our counts are within 0.9% of the judiciary's published fiscal 2025 total of 1,593 and within 1.8% of its fiscal 2024 total of 881.
Civil RICO filings in U.S. district courts by fiscal year
- 20109830 insulin pricing · 0.0%
- 20116680 insulin pricing · 0.0%
- 20127670 insulin pricing · 0.0%
- 20136400 insulin pricing · 0.0%
- 20147340 insulin pricing · 0.0%
- 20156760 insulin pricing · 0.0%
- 20167670 insulin pricing · 0.0%
- 20176954 insulin pricing · 0.6%
- 20182,2383 insulin pricing · 0.1%
- 20191,8132 insulin pricing · 0.1%
- 20209902 insulin pricing · 0.2%
- 20217080 insulin pricing · 0.0%
- 20228181 insulin pricing · 0.1%
- 20231,22523 insulin pricing · 1.9%
- 202489777 insulin pricing · 8.6%
All fiscal years
- 20251,608455 insulin pricing · 28.3%
Fiscal years run October through September. Fiscal 2026 is still incomplete in the court data and is not shown.
How Much of the RICO Increase Came From Insulin Lawsuits
Insulin pricing RICO filings were spread thin through fiscal 2024 and then arrived in one wave.
Insulin cases made up 53.2% of the 711-filing rise from fiscal 2024 to fiscal 2025. January 2025 alone brought 290 of them.
The litigation over insulin prices was centralized in the District of New Jersey in August 2023 as MDL No. 3080, In re Insulin Pricing Litigation. The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation describes it as an alleged scheme between insulin manufacturers and pharmacy benefit managers to inflate insulin prices. A case management order from May 2024 lets qualifying plaintiffs file directly in New Jersey as member cases of the MDL.
Of the 455 insulin pricing RICO filings in fiscal 2025, 442 carry the MDL's docket number in the court data; 404 were filed directly in the MDL and 22 were transferred in from other districts. Another 13 name an insulin maker as first defendant but carry no MDL number, almost all of them filed in other districts. In the data, 99.8% of all fiscal 2025 MDL filings are coded as RICO cases.
Insulin pricing RICO filings by month, October 2023–September 2025
- 2025-01290of 386 RICO filings
- 2024-1261of 143 RICO filings
- 2025-0721of 151 RICO filings
- 2024-1118of 87 RICO filings
- 2025-0216of 91 RICO filings
- 2024-0211of 78 RICO filings
- 2023-119of 60 RICO filings
- 2025-059of 103 RICO filings
All 24 months
- 2024-048of 78 RICO filings
- 2024-058of 73 RICO filings
- 2024-108of 88 RICO filings
- 2025-038of 102 RICO filings
- 2025-048of 96 RICO filings
- 2025-098of 131 RICO filings
- 2023-107of 75 RICO filings
- 2023-127of 65 RICO filings
- 2024-067of 74 RICO filings
- 2025-086of 135 RICO filings
- 2024-015of 63 RICO filings
- 2024-075of 86 RICO filings
- 2024-084of 70 RICO filings
- 2024-094of 78 RICO filings
- 2024-032of 97 RICO filings
- 2025-062of 95 RICO filings
Months are calendar months of the filing date. A filing that is first made in a home district and later transferred into the MDL appears in both months.
Who Is Filing Insulin Pricing RICO Lawsuits
We grouped the fiscal 2025 insulin pricing filings by the type of the first-named plaintiff.
Public entities filed 345 of the 455 filings (75.8%). School districts and education bodies lead with 220, followed by counties (64) and union and multiemployer health funds (60).
Cities accounted for 46 filings; states, territories and tribes 10. Private employers, hospital systems and other plaintiffs filed 50.
Eli Lilly and Company is recorded as first defendant in 96.3% of the filings. The court data keep only the first-named defendant, so the other manufacturers and the pharmacy benefit managers named in the same complaints do not show up in this count.
Insulin pricing RICO filings by type of first-named plaintiff, FY2025
- School districts and education22048.4% of insulin filings
- Counties and parishes6414.1% of insulin filings
- Union and multiemployer health funds6013.2% of insulin filings
- Employers, health systems and other5011.0% of insulin filings
- Cities, towns and villages4610.1% of insulin filings
- States, territories and tribes102.2% of insulin filings
- Other public entities51.1% of insulin filings
Insulin pricing RICO filings by first-named defendant, FY2025
| Defendant | Filings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Eli Lilly and Company | 438 | 96.3% |
| CVS Caremark | 15 | 3.3% |
| Ascent Health Services (Express Scripts) | 1 | 0.2% |
| UnitedHealth Group (Optum) | 1 | 0.2% |
Plaintiff types are assigned from the first plaintiff name as stored in the court data, which is cut off after about two dozen characters.
Which Federal Courts Received the Most RICO Lawsuits
District of New Jersey received 473 civil RICO filings in fiscal 2025, 29.4% of the national total.
That compares with 86 in fiscal 2024. Outside New Jersey, district courts received 1,135 RICO filings in fiscal 2025.
New Jersey's count is driven by the insulin MDL, which sits there. Elsewhere, the Eastern District of New York, the Northern District of Illinois and the Central District of California recorded the most RICO filings, almost none of them insulin cases. The ranking counts filings and does not adjust for the size of a district's caseload or population.
Civil RICO filings by U.S. district court, FY2025
| District | RICO | Insulin | Other |
|---|---|---|---|
| District of New Jersey | 473 | 442 | 31 |
| Eastern District of New York | 128 | 0 | 128 |
| Northern District of Illinois | 109 | 3 | 106 |
| Central District of California | 96 | 0 | 96 |
| Southern District of New York | 84 | 1 | 83 |
| Southern District of Florida | 52 | 0 | 52 |
| Middle District of Florida | 50 | 2 | 48 |
| Eastern District of Pennsylvania | 39 | 0 | 39 |
| Northern District of California | 37 | 0 | 37 |
| Eastern District of Texas | 27 | 0 | 27 |
| Northern District of Georgia | 26 | 0 | 26 |
| Southern District of Indiana | 23 | 0 | 23 |
All 88 districts
| District | RICO | Insulin | Other |
|---|---|---|---|
| Southern District of Texas | 21 | 0 | 21 |
| Northern District of Texas | 20 | 0 | 20 |
| District of Columbia | 19 | 0 | 19 |
| District of Massachusetts | 17 | 0 | 17 |
| Eastern District of California | 16 | 0 | 16 |
| Western District of Washington | 16 | 0 | 16 |
| District of Arizona | 15 | 0 | 15 |
| District of Maryland | 15 | 1 | 14 |
| Eastern District of Michigan | 14 | 0 | 14 |
| Eastern District of Virginia | 14 | 2 | 12 |
| Southern District of Ohio | 13 | 0 | 13 |
| District of Colorado | 11 | 0 | 11 |
| District of Nevada | 11 | 0 | 11 |
| District of Utah | 11 | 0 | 11 |
| District of New Mexico | 10 | 0 | 10 |
| Western District of Texas | 10 | 0 | 10 |
| Middle District of Alabama | 9 | 0 | 9 |
| District of Connecticut | 8 | 3 | 5 |
| Northern District of Florida | 8 | 0 | 8 |
| District of Minnesota | 8 | 0 | 8 |
| Eastern District of Missouri | 8 | 0 | 8 |
| Middle District of Tennessee | 8 | 0 | 8 |
| District of Kansas | 7 | 0 | 7 |
| Eastern District of Louisiana | 7 | 0 | 7 |
| Northern District of Ohio | 7 | 0 | 7 |
| District of Oregon | 7 | 0 | 7 |
| District of South Dakota | 7 | 0 | 7 |
| Northern District of Alabama | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| Eastern District of Arkansas | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| Middle District of Pennsylvania | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| District of South Carolina | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| Western District of Michigan | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| Southern District of Mississippi | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| Northern District of Oklahoma | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| Western District of Oklahoma | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| Western District of Virginia | 5 | 1 | 4 |
| District of Maine | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| District of Montana | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| Northern District of New York | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| Western District of New York | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| Eastern District of North Carolina | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| Eastern District of Tennessee | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| Western District of Arkansas | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Southern District of California | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Middle District of Georgia | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Western District of Missouri | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| District of New Hampshire | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Middle District of North Carolina | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Western District of North Carolina | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Western District of Pennsylvania | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| District of Puerto Rico | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| District of Rhode Island | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Western District of Tennessee | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Eastern District of Wisconsin | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Western District of Wisconsin | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| District of Alaska | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| District of Delaware | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| District of Hawaii | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| District of Idaho | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Northern District of Indiana | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Northern District of Iowa | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Southern District of Iowa | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Eastern District of Kentucky | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Western District of Kentucky | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Northern District of Mississippi | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| District of Nebraska | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Eastern District of Washington | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Northern District of West Virginia | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Southern District of West Virginia | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Southern District of Alabama | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| District of Guam | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Southern District of Illinois | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Middle District of Louisiana | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| District of North Dakota | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| District of Vermont | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| District of Wyoming | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Download the Data and Cite This Study
Every table as a CSV file and in one Excel workbook, a short PDF summary and every chart as an image, free to reuse with attribution (CC BY 4.0).
- Insulin pricing RICO filings by first-named defendant, FY2025FY2025 insulin pricing RICO filings grouped by the company recorded as first-named defendant. · 4 rows · CSV, 1 KB
- Insulin pricing RICO filings by plaintiff type, FY2025FY2025 insulin pricing RICO filings grouped by the type of the first-named plaintiff, classified from the FJC party field. · 7 rows · CSV, 1 KB
- Federal civil RICO filings by district court, FY2025FY2025 civil RICO filings per U.S. district court, with the insulin pricing filings shown separately. · 88 rows · CSV, 3 KB
- Federal civil RICO filings by fiscal year, FY2010–FY2025Civil RICO filings per federal fiscal year, split into insulin pricing filings and all other RICO filings. · 16 rows · CSV, 1 KB
- Federal civil RICO filings by month, October 2023–September 2025Civil RICO filings per calendar month in fiscal years 2024 and 2025, split into insulin pricing filings and all other RICO filings. · 24 rows · CSV, 1 KB
- All tables in one Excel workbookOne sheet per table plus an About sheet with sources, method and citation · Excel (.xlsx), 15 KB
- Summary to print or forward (3 pages)Short answer, key figures, main chart, findings, method and citation · PDF, 199 KB
Charts for your story
Civil RICO filings in U.S. district courts by fiscal year
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Insulin pricing RICO filings by month, October 2023–September 2025
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Insulin pricing RICO filings by type of first-named plaintiff, FY2025
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Civil RICO filings by U.S. district court, FY2025
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How to cite
Goldberg, L. (2026). Federal Civil RICO Filings and the Insulin Pricing Litigation — filings by fiscal year, month, district, plaintiff type and first defendant (FY2010–FY2025) [Data set]. Settlement Insight. https://settlementinsight.com/research/rico-lawsuits-insulin-pricing-surge
BibTeX
@dataset{goldberg_2026_rico_lawsuits_insulin_pricing_surge,
author = {Goldberg, Leonard},
title = {Federal Civil RICO Filings and the Insulin Pricing Litigation --- filings by fiscal year, month, district, plaintiff type and first defendant (FY2010--FY2025)},
year = {2026},
publisher = {Settlement Insight},
url = {https://settlementinsight.com/research/rico-lawsuits-insulin-pricing-surge}
}How We Measured
Checked against published figures
- Civil RICO cases commenced in U.S. district courts, FY2025 (Oct 1, 2024–Sep 30, 2025): published 1,593, our count 1,608 (0.94% apart).Table C-2: U.S. District Courts—Civil Cases Commenced, by Basis of Jurisdiction and Nature of Suit (12-month periods ending September 30, 2024 and 2025)
- Civil RICO cases commenced in U.S. district courts, FY2024 (Oct 1, 2023–Sep 30, 2024): published 881, our count 897 (1.82% apart).Table C-2: U.S. District Courts—Civil Cases Commenced, by Basis of Jurisdiction and Nature of Suit (12-month periods ending September 30, 2024 and 2025)
Full method and limits of the data
Each record is one filing in a district court, the unit the judiciary uses in its Table C-2 of cases commenced. That includes reopened cases, cases transferred from another district and cases that join a multidistrict litigation. Counted this way, our fiscal 2025 total of 1,608 is 0.9% above the 1,593 RICO cases in Table C-2, and our fiscal 2024 total of 897 is 1.8% above the published 881.
A filing counts as an insulin pricing case if it carries the docket number of MDL No. 3080 (In re Insulin Pricing Litigation, District of New Jersey) or if its first-named defendant is Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk or Sanofi and the filing carries no other MDL's docket number; this keeps out, for example, a fiscal 2020 RICO filing against Sanofi that belongs to the Zantac (ranitidine) MDL. Filings against a pharmacy benefit manager outside the MDL are not counted, because the court data do not show what those cases are about. Shares are insulin filings divided by all civil RICO filings in the same fiscal year.
Plaintiff types were assigned from the first-named plaintiff using keyword rules (for example school, county, city of, local union, welfare fund). The classification is rule-based, not a case-by-case review, so a few filings may sit in a neighboring category. Private individuals are not named anywhere in the results.
What this data cannot tell you
- Filings are not the same as lawsuits. A case first filed in a plaintiff's home district and then transferred into the MDL appears twice, and reopened cases appear again. In fiscal 2025, the 1,608 RICO filings carry 1,592 distinct docket numbers.
- The data show which code a filer chose on the civil cover sheet, not whether the complaint's RICO claim succeeds. Many insulin complaints also plead state consumer protection and other claims; a case coded under a different nature of suit is not counted here.
- Only the first-named plaintiff and defendant are recorded, and names are cut off. The plaintiff types are therefore approximate, and the co-defendants named in the insulin complaints, including Novo Nordisk, Sanofi and the pharmacy benefit managers, are not visible in the defendant count.
- Courts add and correct records after the fact. Fiscal 2025 ended about a year before our import, but later court data releases can still change the counts slightly; fiscal 2026 is incomplete and left out.
- The district ranking counts filings and does not adjust for the size of a district's caseload or population.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many civil RICO lawsuits were filed in 2025?
Federal district courts received 1,608 civil RICO filings in fiscal 2025 (October 2024 to September 2025) in Federal Judicial Center records. The judiciary's own Table C-2 reports 1,593, up from 881 a year earlier.
Why did RICO lawsuits increase in 2025?
About half of the increase came from insulin pricing cases: they account for 53.2% of the 711 additional filings. Other RICO filings rose as well, by 40.6%.
What is the insulin pricing lawsuit?
It is a group of federal cases, centralized as MDL No. 3080 in the District of New Jersey, that allege insulin makers and pharmacy benefit managers inflated insulin list prices. In fiscal 2025 the court data show 455 insulin pricing RICO filings, 28.3% of all civil RICO filings.
Who is suing insulin makers under RICO?
Mostly public bodies. By our classification, school districts and education bodies filed 220 of the fiscal 2025 insulin RICO filings, counties 64, cities 46 and union or multiemployer health funds 60.
Which companies are defendants in the insulin RICO cases?
The MDL concerns Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi and the pharmacy benefit managers CVS Caremark, Express Scripts and Optum Rx. The court data record only the first-named defendant, which is Eli Lilly in 438 of the 455 filings.
Can a city or school district file a civil RICO lawsuit?
Under 18 U.S.C. § 1964(c), any person injured in its business or property by a RICO violation may sue in federal district court for three times its damages. In fiscal 2025, public entities filed 345 of the insulin pricing RICO filings.
Sources
- Integrated Database (IDB): Civil cases — Federal Judicial Center
- Table C-2: U.S. District Courts—Civil Cases Commenced, by Basis of Jurisdiction and Nature of Suit, 12-month periods ending September 30, 2024 and 2025 — Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts
- Transfer Order, In re Insulin Pricing Litigation, MDL No. 3080 (August 3, 2023) — Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation
- Case Management Order No. 9 (direct filing), In re Insulin Pricing Litigation — U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey
- Insulin Pricing Litigation (MDL 3080) — U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey
- 18 U.S. Code § 1964 – Civil remedies — Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School
Independent analysis. Settlement Insight is not a law firm and not affiliated with any agency named here. Analysis by Leonard Goldberg, Editor. How we work: methodology, our data.
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