The anti-diabetic remedy “Ozempic” (semaglutide) made by Danish pharmaceutical firm Novo Nordisk.
Joel Saget | AFP | Getty Photographs
The U.S. Senate has launched an investigation into the excessive value of Novo Nordisk‘s widespread weight reduction and diabetes medicine Ozempic and Wegovy in america, versus different international locations the place the medicine are offered.
The investigation into the Danish drugmaker was introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont Unbiased who chairs the Well being, Schooling, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee.
“The scientists at Novo Nordisk deserve nice credit score for creating these medicine which have the potential to be a recreation changer for thousands and thousands of People battling sort 2 diabetes and weight problems,” Sanders stated in a Wednesday letter to CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen.
“As vital as these medicine are, they won’t do any good for the thousands and thousands of sufferers who can not afford them,” wrote Sanders.
Sanders additionally specified by stark phrases the dilemma dealing with American insurers, together with the federal government, given how excessive the prices are for the doubtless life altering medicine. “If the costs for these merchandise are usually not considerably decreased additionally they have the potential to bankrupt Medicare, Medicaid, and our total well being care system,” he wrote.
Sanders famous that Novo Nordisk costs far much less for a similar medicine in different international locations. The corporate, “costs $969 in america for one month of Ozempic however simply $155 in Canada and simply $59 in Germany.”
Wegovy, which is much more costly than Ozempic, is topic to equally disparate pricing abroad, wrote Sanders. A research final month stated that Ozempic may very well be manufactured for lower than $5 a month.
The highly effective progressive senator additionally made a easy request of the drug firm CEO: “Will Novo Nordisk considerably cut back each the checklist value and the online value of each Ozempic and Wegovy?”
Sanders requested Jørgensen in his letter how the value of the medicine is decided and the quantity the pharmaceutical firm spends on analysis and growth. He gave Novo Nordisk till Could 8 to reply a collection of questions in regards to the drug’s pricing.
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) gestures whereas delivering remarks on decreasing healthcare prices, within the Indian Treaty Room of the Eisenhower Govt Workplace constructing, on the White Home advanced in Washington, U.S., April, 3, 2024.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
Novo Nordisk declined to supply manufacturing prices to CNBC following the discharge of the research, and famous that it spent $5 billion on analysis and growth in 2023 and can spend greater than $6 billion this 12 months to spice up manufacturing for GLP-1s.
In a press release to CNBC Wednesday in response to the letter, Novo Nordisk stated they agree with Sanders that entry to the medicine is vital however highlighted the complexities of the healthcare business.
“It is simple to oversimplify the science that goes into understanding illness and creating and producing new remedies, in addition to the intricacies of U.S. and international healthcare techniques. Nevertheless, the general public debate would not all the time bear in mind this extraordinarily advanced actuality,” the corporate stated.
