The U.S. Senate has initiated an investigation into the high prices of Novo Nordisk’s popular weight loss and diabetes drugs, Ozempic and Wegovy, in the United States.
This investigation, targeting the Danish drugmaker, was announced by Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont Independent who chairs the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee.
“The scientists at Novo Nordisk deserve great credit for developing these drugs that have the potential to be a game changer for millions of Americans struggling with type 2 diabetes and obesity,” Sanders expressed in a letter to CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen on Wednesday.
“As important as these drugs are, they will not do any good for the millions of patients who cannot afford them,” Sanders wrote.
Sanders also highlighted the financial strain these high costs place on American insurers, including government programs.
“If the prices for these products are not substantially reduced, they also have the potential to bankrupt Medicare, Medicaid, and our entire health care system,” he emphasized.
He pointed out that Novo Nordisk charges significantly less for these drugs in other countries.
For instance, the company charges $969 in the United States for one month of Ozempic, compared to just $155 in Canada and only $59 in Germany.
Wegovy, which is even more expensive than Ozempic, follows a similar pattern of disparate pricing overseas, Sanders noted.
A study last month indicated that Ozempic could be manufactured for less than $5 a month.
Sanders posed a direct question to the drug company CEO: “Will Novo Nordisk substantially reduce both the list price and the net price of both Ozempic and Wegovy?”
He asked Jørgensen to explain how the prices of these drugs are determined and to disclose the amount the company spends on research and development.
Sanders set a deadline of May 8 for Novo Nordisk to answer a series of questions about the drug’s pricing.
Following the release of the study, Novo Nordisk declined to provide production costs to CNBC and mentioned that it spent $5 billion on research and development in 2023 and plans to spend over $6 billion this year to enhance manufacturing for GLP-1s.
In a statement to CNBC on Wednesday in response to Sanders’ letter, Novo Nordisk agreed that access to these drugs is important but pointed out the complexities of the healthcare industry.
“It’s easy to oversimplify the science that goes into understanding disease and developing and producing new treatments, as well as the intricacies of U.S. and global healthcare systems.
However, the public debate doesn’t always take into account this extremely complex reality,” the company stated.
