In September, the CEO of Novo Nordisk will testify before the US Senate Health Committee, as President Bernie Sanders has invited Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen to explain the company’s pricing levels for diabetes drug Ozempic and anti-obesity drug Wegovy.
And the Democratic senator, who is also running for the party’s presidential nomination, is optimistic that Novo Nordisk can be persuaded to lower prices.
“I think we have a real opportunity and I’m pleased to see President Biden supporting that effort,” Sanders told JOBsNews on Wednesday.
Last week, Sanders published a joint op-ed with President Joe Biden in USA Today calling for lower prices for American patients.
Sanders had already had success in lobbying major pharmaceutical giants such as Novo Nordisk, US-based Eli Lilly and France’s Sanofi, which have cut their insulin prices by 2023. The three companies control about 90% of the US insulin market.
“I think the most important thing we can do, and we’ve done this successfully in the past with insulin, … is to shine a spotlight on the greed of the pharmaceutical industry in general, and Novo Nordisk in particular, in terms of their ripping off of the American people,” the senator’s harsh criticism of the Danish company reads.
“It’s very difficult for any company, especially one that’s making record profits, to defend itself when they charge the American people for the same drug far more than they charge people in other countries.”
Sanders has repeatedly mentioned that the list price for a one-month supply of Ozempic in the United States is $969, while the same drug can be purchased for $155 in Canada, $122 in Denmark and $59 in Germany.
For Wegovy, a one-month supply costs $1,349 in the United States, $186 in Denmark, $140 in Germany and $92 in the United Kingdom, according to the Democratic senator.
Sanders also has his eye on Eli Lilly and its new diabetes drug, Mounjaro, whose active ingredient Tirzepatide is also used in the blockbuster obesity drug Zepbound.
However, both Novo Nordisk and its US competitor have rejected the harsh criticism of US prices for diabetes and obesity drugs directed at the two companies in the Biden-Sanders article.
“Comparing U.S. list prices to those in other countries ignores patient assistance programs and the hundreds of billions of dollars in rebates and fees paid by pharmaceutical companies to PBMs, which should lower the cost of drugs for Americans, but unfortunately this system can actually drive up prices,” Eli Lilly said in a statement last week.
“PBM” stands for “Pharmacy Benefit Manager” and refers to companies that help pharmacies and health insurers purchase drugs from manufacturers to obtain discounts.
Novo Nordisk has also long argued that the complexity of the US healthcare system means that list prices are relatively high, while the pharmaceutical company offers large discounts to intermediaries who negotiate on behalf of health insurers and pharmacies. The net price the company receives is therefore significantly lower than list prices.
At the same time, patients with health insurance can obtain the medicines at a considerably lower price. In addition, net prices are decreasing year after year. And for those patients without health insurance, there are support programmes, says the Danish company.
However, Sanders is far from accepting these arguments.
“It is true that PBMs play a negative role, but despite that… (pharmaceutical companies) continue to defraud the American people,” the senator said.
“Novo, in all of his press releases, keeps saying he wants to work constructively with elected officials. He doesn’t. They haven’t responded to us with anything constructive.”
Novo Nordisk declined to comment immediately on Bernie Sanders’ remarks to JOBsNews.
(English edition by Kristoffer Grønbæk)
JOBs Apply News
For the Latest JOBs Apply News, Follow ©JOBs Apply News on Twitter and Linkedin Page.
