Magnify / Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen, leader govt officer Novo Nordisk A/S, right through an interview on the corporate’s headquarters in Bagsvaerd, Denmark, on Monday, June 12, 2023.
After some persuasion from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the CEO of Novo Nordisk will testify prior to lawmakers later this 12 months at the “outrageously prime value” of the corporate’s diabetes and weight-loss medicine—Ozempic and Wegovy—in the United States.
CEO Lars Jørgensen will seem prior to the Senate Committee on Well being, Training, Hard work, and Pensions (HELP), which is chaired by way of Sanders, in early September. The settlement got here after a dialog with Sanders during which the CEO reportedly “reconsidered his place” and agreed to testify voluntarily. As such, Sanders has canceled a vote scheduled for June 18 on whether or not to subpoena Novo Nordisk to talk about its US costs, that are significantly upper than the ones of alternative international locations.
The impartial lawmaker has been operating for months to force Novo Nordisk into decreasing its costs and showing prior to the committee. In April, Sanders despatched Jørgensen a letter pronouncing an investigation into the costs and integrated a long set of data requests. In Would possibly, the committee’s investigation launched a record suggesting that Novo Nordisk’s present pricing threatens to “bankrupt our whole well being care machine.”
Sanders has time and again hammered no longer simplest the prime costs of Novo Nordisk’s two blockbuster medicine but in addition the massive disparity between US costs and the ones in different international locations.
As much as 15x extra in the United States
“Novo Nordisk recently fees American citizens with sort 2 diabetes $969 a month for Ozempic, whilst this similar precise drug may also be bought for simply $155 in Canada and simply $59 in Germany,” Sanders wrote in April. “Novo Nordisk additionally fees American citizens with weight problems $1,349 a month for Wegovy, whilst this similar precise product may also be bought for simply $140 in Germany and $92 in the UK.”
Commercial
Yale researchers, in the meantime, revealed a learn about in JAMA in March estimating that each medicine might be manufactured for not up to $5.
In Would possibly, Novo Nordisk answered with a letter to Sanders, arguing that blame for prime costs in the United States lies with the rustic’s complicated well being machine and with heart managers who take cuts, in keeping with Bloomberg. Novo Nordisk stated within the letter that it’s ready to deal with “systemic problems in order that everybody who can take pleasure in its drugs is in a position to get them,” the hole reported. The corporate additionally stated it has spent over $10 billion on analysis and building to carry Wegovy and Ozempic to the marketplace.
Nonetheless, that quantity is small compared to the projected income from the medication. Bloomberg famous that analysts estimate that Novo Nordisk will make $27 billion from the 2 medicine this 12 months on my own. The Would possibly research by way of the HELP committee discovered that if simply part of the adults in the United States with weight problems get started taking a brand new weight-loss drug, akin to Wegovy, the collective value can be round $411 billion consistent with 12 months. Any other record by way of the Congressional Price range Place of work discovered that the medication’ prices are so prime that they are going to no longer be offset by way of any monetary positive aspects from advanced well being results.
“The Committee appears ahead to Mr. Jørgensen explaining why American citizens are paying as much as 10 or 15 occasions extra for those medicines than folks in different international locations,” Sanders stated final week.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25542554/STK417_MONEY_CVIRGINIA_C.jpg "3 of the largest US banks are going through a lawsuit for ‘standard fraud’ on Zelle")
