ADAMS TWP — Board directors of Mars Area School District unanimously agreed to join a class action lawsuit against Eli Lilly and Company over rising insulin prices.

The multidistrict litigation alleges that the pharmaceutical company and manufacturers conspired to raise prices for the diabetes medication.

At a school board meeting Tuesday, Oct. 8, solicitor Thomas W. King III of Dillon McCandless King Coulter & Graham said high prices have impacted a number of insulin-dependent employees and family members in the district, which is self-insured and facing rising health care costs. King said Butler Area School District also has agreed to join the lawsuit.

The school district will not be responsible for paying legal fees, which would be paid out of any recovery.

At the Tuesday meeting, the board also voted to file a declaratory judgment action against the Pennsylvania School Board Association. The Mars Area board came to the decision in a 7-2 vote.

This lawsuit against the school board association comes after the district received “threatening letters” from the organization to cease and desist using “what they allege are their copyrighted materials,” King said.