Washington — Lawmakers will query the maker of in style weight reduction medicine Ozempic and Wegovy throughout a Senate committee listening to on Tuesday centered on what Sen. Bernie Sanders has referred to as “outrageously excessive” costs Individuals pay for the medicine.
Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen is testifying earlier than the Senate Well being, Schooling, Labor and Pension committee, led by Sanders.
Sanders, a Vermont unbiased, advised reporters on Monday that the listening to is about “merely asking Novo Nordisk why they proceed to tear off the American folks.”
“Most of their gross sales are right here in the US,” Sanders stated. “We’re their money cow.”
The drug firm has set costs for Ozempic and Wegovy a lot larger than in different international locations. The committee discovered earlier this yr that Novo Nordisk costs Individuals with diabetes $969 a month for Ozempic, whereas in Canada it prices $155 and $59 in Germany. For Wegovy, the committee discovered that Novo Nordisk costs Individuals with weight problems $1,349 per 30 days, as in comparison with $140 in Germany and $92 in the UK.
The favored weight reduction medicine, generally known as GLP-1 agonists, are sometimes utilized by folks with diabetes and weight problems, and have seen hovering demand within the final yr. However for 54% of adults who had taken a GLP-1 drug — even these with insurance coverage — they stated the price was “troublesome” to afford, in keeping with a KFF ballot launched in Might.
In the meantime, a current research by Yale College prompt that the medicine will be profitably manufactured for “considerably decrease” than the quantities Individuals are paying.
Heading into the listening to, Sanders stated the demand for the drugmaker have to be that it “considerably decrease the price of your product,” and never cost Individuals greater than folks in different international locations.
The drugmaker defended its pricing in a press release forward of the listening to, saying “we admire that it’s irritating that every nation has its personal healthcare system, however making remoted and restricted comparisons ignores this elementary truth,” whereas claiming that even when the corporate lowers its costs, too usually sufferers within the U.S. do not see the financial savings.
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Anna Werner
contributed to this report.
