President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders in a Tuesday op-ed in USA Today called on Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly to “stop ripping off Americans” with “unconscionably high prices” for their GLP-1 medicines.
President Joe Biden has joined Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in calling for cheaper weight-loss drugs, blasting Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly for the “unconscionably high prices” of their respective GLP-1 medicines.
Biden and Sanders in a co-authored opinion piece published Tuesday in USA Today, argued that American consumers pay up to six times more for Novo’s semaglutide brands Ozempic and Wegovy than citizens of Canada, Germany or other developed countries. Lilly’s obesity treatment Zepbound (tirzepatide) is also prohibitively expensive with a monthly cost of around $1,100, they wrote.
“That’s unacceptable,” according to Biden and Sanders. “Why should people in Burlington, Vermont, pay so much more than people in Copenhagen or Berlin for the same drug?”
The high costs of these GLP-1 treatments could “bankrupt the American healthcare system,” they warned noting that if half of all adults with obesity started treatment with Wegovy, it would cost around $411 billion per year–$5 billion greater than what the U.S. spent on all prescription drugs at the pharmacy in 2022.
“This is not morally responsible or fiscally responsible,” Biden and Sanders wrote.
The op-ed flagged Novo’s $12 billion profit in 2023 which Biden and Sanders contend was achieved “in part by charging Americans over $1,000 a month for a prescription drug that can be profitably manufactured for less than $5.”
“That is not making a reasonable return on investment. That is price gouging. That is corporate greed,” they wrote.
Biden and Sanders also hit back at the common industry refrain that drug prices reflect the years-long development process and the value that they provide. Dramatically lowering prices, according to pharma companies, could prevent innovative treatments—like GLP-1 drugs—from being developed in the future.
“Reaping the rewards of innovation is not in fundamental conflict with fair prices for consumers or helping the broadest set of possible people,” Biden and Sanders countered.
In April 2024, Sanders, chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, launched a probe into the high prices of Ozempic and Wegovy,
Last month, in line with this investigation, Sanders threatened to subpoena Novo president Doug Langa, to force him to testify before the HELP committee. A few days later, Novo CEO Lars Jørgensen agreed to appear before the committee. The hearing is slated for early September 2024, though no exact date has been provided yet.
