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ozempic
Hailing Ozempic Price Negotiation Plan, Sanders Asks: 'Will Trump Back Down' to Big Pharma?
"We will soon find out," said Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Jan 17, 2025
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders welcomed news Friday that the Biden administration included the expensive and increasingly popular drugs Ozempic and Wegovy on a slate of 15 medications that will soon be subject to price negotiations.
That is, if President-elect Donald Trump allows the Medicare price-negotiation program to continue.
"Will Trump make sure that all Americans—not just those on Medicare—pay no more than people in other countries for Ozempic and Wegovy?" Sanders (I-Vt.), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), asked in a statement Friday, pointing to the president-elect's previous criticism of Big Pharma. "Or will Trump back down on his commitment and continue to allow the pharmaceutical industry to get away with murder by taking away the government's power to negotiate prices?"
"We will soon find out," said Sanders, who has publicly grilled pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk's CEO over the exorbitant prices of the obesity and diabetes drugs Ozempic and Wegovy.
Reutersreported that shortly following the 2024 election, the pharmaceutical industry began pushing Trump's team to weaken the price negotiation program, which was put in place by the Inflation Reduction Act.
"Pharma expects to piggyback on Republican moves to scrap some of the energy and green subsidy provisions in the legislation," Reuters reported.
The drug industry is reportedly not lobbying senators to block the confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump's pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). If confirmed, Kennedy would oversee the price-negotiation program.
"The Trump administration could go in one of three directions with the Medicare negotiations program: stay the course, water it down, or repeal it altogether," KFF senior vice president Tricia Neuman wrote Friday. "There are potential tradeoffs with each, but the first would be most popular."
"We must keep pushing to expand the wildly popular Medicare negotiation program. Patients fought extremely hard for the passage of these reforms."
HHS said Friday that the 15 newly selected drugs—which add to the 10 medications that have already faced price negotiations—"accounted for about $41 billion in total gross covered prescription drug costs under Medicare Part D."
"When combined with the total gross covered prescription drug costs under Medicare Part D of the 10 drugs selected for the first cycle of negotiations over that same time period, this represents over a third of total gross covered prescription drug costs under Medicare Part D," the agency said.
If the Trump administration allows negotiations on the 15 drugs to proceed, the new prices would take effect in 2027.
"For the last twenty years, drug corporations have rigged the system in their favor—hiking prices at will and leaving millions of patients at their mercy," said Merith Basey, executive director of Patients for Affordable Drugs. "Thanks to the 2022 prescription drug law, last year Medicare negotiated a better deal on 10 of some of the most expensive and most commonly used drugs covered by the program."
"Today's announcement of 15 additional high-cost drugs builds on that historic progress and will lower costs for millions more patients in 2027," Basey added. "But let's be clear: We must keep pushing to expand the wildly popular Medicare negotiation program. Patients fought extremely hard for the passage of these reforms and they continue to vigorously defend them against pharma's attacks—because nobody should have to choose between life-saving drugs and their basic needs."
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Sanders Calls BS on Novo Nordisk Excuses for Sky-High Prices of Ozempic, Wegovy
During a hearing, Sen. Bernie Sanders told the pharmaceutical giant's CEO to "stop ripping us off."
Sep 24, 2024
Sen. Bernie Sanders on Tuesday rejected the pharmaceutical Novo Nordisk's justifications for the high prices of two increasingly popular obesity and diabetes medications in the United States, telling the company's CEO to "stop ripping us off."
Sanders' (I-Vt.) remarks came during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee hearing featuring testimony from Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, the chief executive of the Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk.
"The United States is Novo Nordisk's cash cow for Ozempic and Wegovy," said Sanders, noting that the company has made $50 billion in sales of the two drugs since 2018—a majority of them in the U.S., where the company charges significantly higher prices than in Denmark, Germany, and other rich countries.
The senator rejected Jørgensen's efforts in his written testimony to explain away the high prices for the two medications. The executive pointed to the "complexity" of the U.S. healthcare system and rebates to pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), among other factors, to justify the current list prices of Ozempic and Wegovy—$969 a month and $1,349 a month, respectively, in the U.S.
Sanders observed that "even factoring in all of the rebates that PBMs receive, the net price for Ozempic is still nearly $600—over nine times as much as it costs in Germany."
"And the estimated net price of Wegovy," the senator added, "is over $800—nearly four and a half times as much as it costs in Denmark."
Watch the full hearing:
Ahead of Tuesday's hearing, Sanders released a report countering Jørgensen's insistence that cutting the list prices of Ozempic and Wegovy would lead to PBMs "dropping" the medications from their formularies, resulting in less access to the drugs.
"Three major PBMs that help determine drug coverage for most of the nation—Cigna Group/Express Scripts, CVS Health/Caremark, UnitedHealth Group/Optum Rx—confirmed to Chair Sanders that a list price reduction would not negatively impact formulary placement for Ozempic and Wegovy, and affirmed that lower list prices would, in fact, make the drugs more widely available to patients in need," Sanders' office said.
The report also disputes Novo Nordisk's claim that price cuts would undermine the company's ability to "invest in new and innovative drug research and development efforts"—a claim that pharmaceutical firms often use to justify high prices.
"Since launching Ozempic in 2018, Novo Nordisk has spent twice as much on stock buybacks and dividends ($44 billion) as it has on research and development ($21 billion), according to financial filings," the report notes. "Novo Nordisk has also lavished cash and perks on healthcare providers, sending doctors on trips to Alaska, Hawaii, and Florida, and paying for nearly 1.7 million meals and snacks for doctors and other healthcare providers to promote Ozempic and Wegovy, federal records show."
"Right now, rationing is a painful reality for American patients dealing with issues related to diabetes and obesity."
During Tuesday's hearing, Jørgensen said he would be willing to do "anything that will help patients get access to affordable medicine" but did not specifically pledge to reduce the prices of Ozempic and Wegovy. Jørgensen told the Senate committee that PBMs' vows not to reduce access to the drugs in the case of price cuts was "new information to me."
The consumer advocacy group Public Citizensaid following the Senate hearing that Medicare would save $14 billion on Ozempic and Wegovy if the Biden administration used its existing legal authority to approve generic competition for the two medications.
"Novo today appeared unable, or unwilling, to articulate a credible response [to] why it charges Americans more than people in other wealthy countries," said Peter Maybarduk, director of Public Citizen's Access to Medicines program. "The federal government must open generic competition with Ozempic and Wegovy."
"Right now, rationing is a painful reality for American patients dealing with issues related to diabetes and obesity," he continued. "The federal government has an obligation to serve these patients' health needs. In doing so, we can also improve Medicare's financial health. As Sen. Sanders has cautioned, Novo Nordisk's price gouging practices would impose unmanageable costs on Medicare if its drugs were made available to all seniors who might benefit from them."
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Sanders Rips Pharma Giant for Charging $900+ for Drug That Could Be Sold for $100
"Why? Excessive corporate greed," said Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Sep 17, 2024
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders called out the pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk on Tuesday for charging American patients more than $900 a month for the increasingly popular diabetes drug Ozempic, even though generic manufacturers are willing to sell the medication for significantly less.
During a panel discussion with experts, Sanders (I-Vt.) said he and his staff have been in contact with the top executives of major drug makers who say they could sell a generic version of Ozempic for less than $100 a month—and still turn a profit. A recent study found that the drug can be manufactured for less than $5 a month.
"Novo Nordisk, which has made nearly $50 billion in sales off of Ozempic and Wegovy, charges Americans almost $1,000 a month—the highest prices in the world," Sanders, the chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, said Tuesday. "Why? Excessive corporate greed."
Ozempic and Wegovy are part of a class of treatments known as GLP-1s. Wegovy, a weight-loss drug that Novo Nordisk sells for $1,349 a month in the U.S., contains the same active ingredient as Ozempic, which is approved only for people with Type 2 diabetes.
The drugs' growing popularity in the U.S. has drawn greater scrutiny to Novo Nordisk's pricing. Sanders' office noted Tuesday that the company's price tag for Wegovy is $186 in Denmark, $140 in Germany, and $92 in the United Kingdom.
Novo Nordisk's high prices for the drugs in the U.S. could have far-reaching impacts on the nation's healthcare system. A group of economists wrote in a recent op-ed for The New York Times earlier this year that "under reasonable assumptions and at current prices, making this class of drugs available to all obese Americans could eventually cost over $1 trillion per year," which is "almost as much as the government spends on the entireMedicare program and almost one-fifth of the entire amount America spends on healthcare."
Sanders warned Tuesday that if the prices of Ozempic and Wegovy aren't reined in, Medicare premiums could surge.
"Our healthcare system, I think most people understand, is in crisis," Sanders said during the panel discussion. "The business model of the pharmaceutical industry is unsustainable."
Over the course of our investigation into the outrageous cost of Ozempic and Wegovy in the U.S., I spoke with the CEOs of major generic pharmaceutical companies who confirmed:
They can sell a generic version of Ozempic for $100/mo. https://t.co/XDHdBRPIcM
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) September 17, 2024
Peter Maybarduk, director of the Access to Medicines Program at Public Citizen, said in a statement Tuesday that "all we need to make Ozempic for $100 a reality is to overcome Novo's patent monopoly, which the government has the power to do any time."
"States and clinicians are asking the feds for help," said Maybarduk. "We estimate taking action on Novo's patents could save Medicare more than $14 billion in the first two years of competition, while making diabetes and obesity drugs affordable."
Last month, Public Citizen delivered a petition to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra urging him to use existing law to "authorize generic competitors to Ozempic and Wegovy."
"Novo Nordisk’s outrageous pricing of [Ozempic and Wegovy] threatens to break the coffers of federal health programs," the group wrote. "Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1498, the administration should authorize use of any and all patents necessary to allow manufacturers to produce generic alternatives to these treatments on behalf of the United States government, which can be used to supply Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal health programs. This will facilitate competition and make the treatments more affordable and accessible for patients."
The CEO of Novo Nordisk, which has spent aggressively on lobbying this year, is scheduled to testify before the Senate HELP Committee next week.
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