{"id":4954,"date":"2024-04-24T16:00:14","date_gmt":"2024-04-24T16:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=4954"},"modified":"2024-04-24T16:26:31","modified_gmt":"2024-04-24T16:26:31","slug":"senate-begins-investigation-into-ozempic-and-wegovy-prices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=4954","title":{"rendered":"Senate Begins Investigation Into Ozempic and Wegovy Prices"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Senator Bernie Sanders is pressing the drugmaker Novo Nordisk for details on its pricing of the popular diabetes and weight loss medications.<\/p>\n

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A Senate committee is investigating the prices that Novo Nordisk charges for its blockbuster medications, Ozempic and Wegovy, which are highly effective at treating diabetes and obesity but carry steep price tags.<\/p>\n

Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, said in an interview that the prices must \u201cbe lowered in order for consumers to get it, and for governments not to go bankrupt providing it.\u201d The list price of Ozempic, which is authorized for Type 2 diabetes, is around $968 per package. Wegovy, which is approved for weight loss and to reduce the risk of heart problems<\/a> in some adults with obesity, costs $1,349.02 per package.<\/p>\n

In a letter sent Wednesday to Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen, Novo Nordisk\u2019s chief executive, Mr. Sanders wrote that the committee was requesting internal communications on the prices of these drugs in the United States, which is higher than the cost in other countries. The committee also requested information on why the company charges more for Wegovy when the two medications contain the same compound, semaglutide, and asked whether Novo Nordisk would \u201csubstantially reduce\u201d the prices of both medications. Mr. Sanders requested a response by May 8.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson from Novo Nordisk wrote in a statement that the company agrees \u201cthat access to these important treatments is essential for patients in Medicare, Medicaid and the commercial markets,\u201d but added that \u201cit\u2019s 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 health care systems.\u201d The spokesperson said that Novo Nordisk \u201cremains committed to working with policymakers to advance solutions to support access and affordability for all patients.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Mr. Sanders said he also intended to look at Eli Lilly, which makes the rival medications Mounjaro<\/a> and Zepbound<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not just picking on Novo Nordisk,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is a problem across the board.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates<\/a> that nearly 42 percent of American adults have obesity, and that over 11 percent<\/a> of the population has diabetes. \u201cYou think about just the sheer number of people who could be eligible for taking these products, and it starts to really boggle your mind thinking about how to pay for that,\u201d said Stacie Dusetzina, a health policy expert at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Those costs are compounded by the fact that patients may need to stay on<\/a> these medications for the rest of their lives, she added.<\/p>\n

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Senator Bernie Sanders is pressing the drugmaker Novo Nordisk for details on its pricing of the popular diabetes and weight loss medications.A Senate committee is investigating the prices that Novo Nordisk charges for its blockbuster medications, Ozempic and Wegovy, which are highly effective at treating diabetes and obesity but carry steep price tags.Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, said in an interview that the prices must \u201cbe lowered in order for consumers to get it, and for governments not to go bankrupt providing it.\u201d The list price of Ozempic, which is authorized for Type 2 diabetes, is around $968 per package. Wegovy, which is approved for weight loss and to reduce the risk of heart problems in some adults with obesity, costs $1,349.02 per package. In a letter sent Wednesday to Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen, Novo Nordisk\u2019s chief executive, Mr. Sanders wrote that the committee was requesting internal communications on the prices of these drugs in the United States, which is higher than the cost in other countries. The committee also requested information on why the company charges more for Wegovy when the two medications contain the same compound, semaglutide, and asked whether Novo Nordisk would \u201csubstantially reduce\u201d the prices of both medications. Mr. Sanders requested a response by May 8.A spokesperson from Novo Nordisk wrote in a statement that the company agrees \u201cthat access to these important treatments is essential for patients in Medicare, Medicaid and the commercial markets,\u201d but added that \u201cit\u2019s 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 health care systems.\u201d The spokesperson said that Novo Nordisk \u201cremains committed to working with policymakers to advance solutions to support access and affordability for all patients.\u201dMr. Sanders said he also intended to look at Eli Lilly, which makes the rival medications Mounjaro and Zepbound. \u201cWe\u2019re not just picking on Novo Nordisk,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is a problem across the board.\u201dThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that nearly 42 percent of American adults have obesity, and that over 11 percent of the population has diabetes. \u201cYou think about just the sheer number of people who could be eligible for taking these products, and it starts to really boggle your mind thinking about how to pay for that,\u201d said Stacie Dusetzina, a health policy expert at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Those costs are compounded by the fact that patients may need to stay on these medications for the rest of their lives, she added.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4956,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4954"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4957,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4954\/revisions\/4957"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}