Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, redoubled his attacks on Novo Nordisk on Tuesday, alleging that the CEOs of significant generic pharmaceutical firms informed him that Novo Nordisk’s diabetic medicine Ozempic could be produced and sold for less than $100 per month.
Sanders said this at a Capitol Hill roundtable discussion with experts. It was a preamble to Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen’s testimony scheduled for next week before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
Jørgensen consented to testify in June on Ozempic’s U.S. price as well as that of the drugmaker’s wildly successful weight-loss medication Wegovy. In April, Sanders, the Senate committee’s chair, launched an inquiry into Novo Nordisk’s pricing policies.
According to a committee report, Novo Nordisk charges almost $1,300 per month for Wegovy in the United States, despite the fact that the medication costs $186 in Denmark, $137 in Germany, and $92 in the United Kingdom.
Sanders stated during the discussion on Tuesday that he learned from previous talks he had with generic medicine manufacturers that Novo Nordisk’s price is “nothing less than excess corporate greed.”
Sanders stated, “They did the math and they tell me that for less than $100 a month, they can sell a generic version of Ozempic to Americans—exactly the same medication that Novo Nordisk is producing.” “Less than 10% of what Americans are currently paying.”
The generic medication firms that informed Sanders’ office that they could sell Ozempic for a far lower price than Novo Nordisk did not want to be named.
It doesn’t matter if generic medicine manufacturers can truly offer Ozempic for less because Novo Nordisk has the sole patent, which prevents other businesses from making the medication.
However, Sanders’ remark provides an indication of the kinds of queries Jørgensen would probably see the next week.
A representative for Novo Nordisk stated in a statement that since the medication’s approval in the United States in 2017, the net price of Ozempic, or the amount paid after discounts and rebates, has decreased by 40%. Wegovy’s net price has also been declining at a similar rate.
Experts from Yale, T1International, an advocacy group for individuals with Type 1 diabetes, and Dale Folwell, the state treasurer of North Carolina, who has been critical of the high cost of Wegovy and Ozempic in his state, were present at the roundtable on Tuesday.
Sanders referred to Eli Lilly’s decision to reduce the price of its two lowest dosages of the weight-loss medication Zepbound in August as “a modest step forward,” but he also chastised the company for not decreasing the price of Mounjaro, its diabetic medication.
