1 of 2 | The CEO of Novo Nordisk is on Capitol Hill Tuesday to testify before a Senate committee about the high costs of its drugs Ozempic and Wegovy. File Photo by Ida Marie Odgaard/EPA-EFE
The CEO of Novo Nordisk is on Capitol Hill Tuesday to testify before a Senate committee about the high costs of its drugs Ozempic and Wegovy.
Chairman Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., during his opening comments, had a simple message for Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, after highlighting the costs of his drugs are as much as 15 times higher in the United States than other countries. Advertisement
“All we are saying, Mr. Jørgensen, is treat the American people the same way you treat people all over the world,” Sanders said. “Stop ripping us off.”
The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions began its investigation of the Danish drug company earlier this year. Jørgensen is the only witness testifying in Tuesday’s hearing.
The hearing is live streaming on the Senate committee’s website. Advertisement
Sanders called the prices for Ozempic and Wegovy “outrageously high.”
During his opening remarks, Sanders speculated that Jørgensen would argue that lowering the costs of his company’s drugs would result in pharmacy benefit managers not covering them.
“I’m delighted to announce today that I have received commitments in writing from all of the major PBMs that if Novo Nordisk substantially reduces the list price of Ozempic or Wegovy they would not limit coverage,” Sanders said. “In fact, all of them told me they would be able to expand coverage for these drugs if the list price was reduced.”
Sanders asked Jørgensen if he would commit to substantially reducing drug prices based on the commitments from major PBMs. Jørgensen said this was new information to him.
“Anything that will help patients get access to affordable medicine, we’ll be happy to look into,” he responded.
Sanders submitted the letters he received from PBM’s, along with more than 200 letters from doctors warning that tens of thousands of their patients will die or experience a significant decline in their quality of life if these drug prices were not substantially reduced.
“Over 40,000 lives a year could be saved if Wegovy was made widely available and affordable to Americans,” Sanders said. Advertisement
While Sanders grilled Jørgensen over the “corporate greed” involved in the high prices for Ozempic and Wegovy, he noted that Novo Nordisk is not breaking any laws. Instead it is a symptom of America’s broken healthcare system.
“What they’re doing is lawful. They are taking advantage of the fact that the U.S., until recently, is the only major country in the world not negotiating our drug prices,” Sanders said. “Novo Nordisk can charge us as much as the market can bear. And that is precisely what they are doing.”
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said the committee must balance reining in prescription drug costs and maintaining a financial incentive that encourages innovation. He added that going after “big pharma” is not a silver bullet solution to bringing down drug costs.
“We still have to preserve the profit incentive for the creativity, for the drug companies to invest in developing drugs that are going to positively affect the burden of disease in our country,” Cassidy said.
According to a press release from Sanders published before the hearing, Novo Nordisk charges $969 per month for Ozempic — a drug prescribed to adults with type 2 diabetes — in the United States. The drug can be purchased for $155 in Canada, $122 in Denmark and $59 in Germany. Advertisement
A month’s prescription for Wegovy in the United States costs $1,349, compared to $186 in Denmark, $140 in Germany and $92 in Britain.
Sanders alleges that three CEOs of generic pharmaceutical companies have said they could sell a generic version of Ozempic for less than $100 per month and make a profit. Novo Nordisk has made about $50 billion in sales from the sale of Ozempic and Wegovy alone.
