Sen. Sanders calls on Novo Nordisk to reduce ‘outrageous’ cost of Ozempic

Although GLP-1 weight-loss drugs are delivering impressive results, the big concern is the high price of treatment – and who pays for it. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has weighed in on the debate by calling on Novo Nordisk to lower the price of its popular drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, and wants to meet with the drugmakers’s CEO Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen over the costs of GLP-1 drugs for diabetes and obesity.

“Ozempic has the potential to be a game changer in the diabetes and obesity epidemics in America,” said Sanders, chair of the Senate committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. “But if we do not substantially reduce the price of this drug, millions who need it will be unable to afford it. Further, this outrageously high price has the potential to bankrupt Medicare, the American people and our entire health-care system.

We cannot allow that to happen. A prescription drug is not safe or effective for a patient who cannot afford it.”

Sanders cited a Yale study that found an Ozempic dose costs Novo Nordisk less than $5 a month to manufacture. The company did not disclose its manufacturing costs in a statement to CNBC in response to the study, but told the outlet it spent almost $5 billion on research and development in 2023 and plans to spend more than $6 billion on a new deal to boost supply of the drug. The company also said out-of-pocket costs vary, based on a patient’s insurance plan.

Sanders asked Novo Nordisk to lower the list price of Ozempic and Wegovy to “no more than what they charge for this drug in Canada.” Ozempic costs about $300 per month out-of-pocket in Canada, compared to about $1,000 in the United States.

A recent KFF study found Medicare Part D spent a total of $5.7 billion in 2022 on Ozempic and other similar weight-loss drugs combined, up from $57 million in 2018. Making Ozempic and similar weight-loss drugs available to all obese Americans could cost state public insurance programs, health insurance exchange subsidies and U.S. taxpayers $1 trillion annually, MIT economists estimated in a recent New York Times op-ed.

“That exceeds the savings to the government from reduced diabetes incidence and other health-care costs from excess weight by $800 billion annually,” they wrote. “This is a staggering sum. It is almost as much as the government spends on the entire Medicare program and almost one-fifth of the entire amount America spends on health care.”

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Sanders has made calling on pharmaceutical companies to lower their drug prices a signature issue, recently grilling executives at major drug manufacturers Johnson & Johnson, Merck and Bristol Myers Squibb about their prices in a committee hearings. He is considering hearings on the costs of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic but first wants to personally discuss their prices with the Novo CEO.