Sen. Sanders calls off subpoena vote over maker of Ozempic and Wegovy

Sen. Bernie Sanders today canceled a previously scheduled vote on whether to subpoena Doug Langa, the head of North American operations at Novo Nordisk, the company that makes two popular, expensive obesity-fighting drugs, Ozempic and Wegovy.

Sanders, the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, had announced that the committee would vote on issuing a subpoena June 18.

Sanders called the meeting on the vote off after Lars Jørgensen, Novo Nordisk’s chief executive officer, agreed to testify voluntarily at a hearing that will take place in early September.

“The scheduled subpoena vote is no longer necessary and will be canceled,” Sanders said in a comment about the vote cancellation.

Related: Sen. Sanders launches probe of ‘outrageous’ prices of Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy, Ozempic

Sanders is an independent from Vermont who caucuses with the Democrats.

Under his direction, the Senate HELP Committee began investigating the cost of GLP-1 agonists— products in a family of drugs that can help control Type 2 diabetes and obesity — in April.

The Senate HELP Committee reported in May that, when used to control Type 2 diabetes, the typical monthly for Ozempic is $59 in Germany, $155 in Canada and $969 in the United States.

The monthly cost of using Wegovy to treat obesity is $140 in Germany and $1,349 in the United States, Sanders reported.

The Senate HELP Committee “looks forward to Mr. Jørgensen explaining why Americans are paying up to 10 or 15 times more for these medications than people in other countries,” Sanders said.

Novo Nordisk has asserted that the high cost of the drugs in the United States is mainly due to the intricacies of the U.S. drug distribution system.