In a high-profile showdown Tuesday with Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Senate health committee, Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen will be asked to defend the drugs’ U.S. monthly list prices of $969 and $1,349, respectively.
Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen is scheduled to testify Tuesday before the Senate health committee to explain the company’s U.S. pricing for Ozempic and Wegovy, the Danish drugmaker’s diabetes and obesity blockbusters, in a high-profile showdown with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
The hearing is “going to get a lot of attention” given the comparatively high prices of Ozempic and Wegovy in the U.S.—and the fact that it is a presidential election year, Emily Field, director and head of European pharmaceuticals equity research at Barclays, told BioSpace.
Sanders, chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, in April 2024 launched an investigation into the prices of Novo’s Ozempic and Wegovy, which have generated nearly $50 billion in sales from these two products.
The problem, according to Sanders, is that Novo charges $969 a month for Ozempic in the U.S., but only $155 in Canada, $122 in Denmark and $59 in Germany. Sanders contends that Americans are also paying $1,349 per month for Wegovy, while it can be purchased for $186 in Denmark, $140 in Germany and $92 in the U.K.
A Novo spokesperson in an emailed response to BioSpace said the company appreciates “that it is frustrating that each country has its own healthcare system but making isolated and limited comparisons ignores this fundamental fact.”
At the same time, the spokesperson noted that the “net price of Ozempic has declined by 40% since launch in the U.S. and Wegovy is following a similar trajectory.” However, the company added that even when Novo lowers its prices, “too often patients in the United States don’t receive the savings—this is a problem.”
Field expects the hearing’s line of questioning to get heated on Tuesday, with Jørgensen in the hot seat under the bright lights of Sanders’ committee. “I expect Bernie to just yell at him,” she remarked, adding that Novo’s CEO is better suited for such high-pressure situations compared to Doug Langa, Novo’s executive vice president of North America Operations, whom the Senate committee earlier this summer threatened to subpoena to testify.
“Initially, they were going to send Doug Langa, who is their U.S. commercial guy, and I was really happy it’s going to be Lars because Doug is pretty American and a little bit of a hot-head, while Lars is the most Danish and diplomatic—he will just sit there and take it,” Field said.
Pricing Pressure from Lilly, Sanders
Novo’s chief competitor Eli Lilly shook up the red-hot obesity market last month with its announcement that it will begin selling single-dose vials of its blockbuster Zepbound directly to consumers. Offered through its self-pay pharmacy portion of Lilly’s direct-to-consumer (DTC) platform, the company claims Zepbound single-dose vials are at least 50% less than the list price of all other incretin medicines for obesity.
Still, Field said not to expect Novo to follow Lilly’s lead.
“The thing is for these vials is that this is only going to be for the cash payment market,” Field said. “Novo’s told us that Wegovy, they think, is like 10% cash pay—and that’s not how they’re going to get big numbers.”
In response to Lilly’s self-pay DTC offering, Sanders at the time issued a statement saying he was “pleased” that Lilly took a “modest step forward” but added that “millions of Americans will still be unable to afford the diabetes and weight-loss drugs they desperately need.”
Lilly’s Zepbound is also closing the gap with Novo’s Wegovy in the race for weight-loss market share, forcing Novo to lower the prices, with the downward trend expected to continue through the remainer of 2024.
“The price for Wegovy did take a much bigger step down than what we saw with Zepbound” in the second quarter of this year, according to Field, who noted that Novo executives in last month’s Q2 earnings call with analysts “went out of their way to say that they were selling a lot of Wegovy into the Medicaid channel.”
During the call, Jørgensen emphasized that Novo’s diabetes and obesity drugs are “serving more patients than ever before” with “20 states adopting Wegovy in Medicaid” and expanding access to the medications through the public health insurance program for people with low income.
For his part, Sanders continues to rail against the “outrageously high cost of Ozempic and Wegovy” in the U.S., announcing last week ahead of Tuesday’s hearing that more than 250 clinicians are asking Congress to rein in the “exorbitant prices” of such drugs—including rival Lilly’s Mounjaro and Zepbound.
Asked why Sanders launched an investigation into Novo’s pricing, and not Lilly’s, and is focusing Tuesday’s hearing on the Danish drugmaker, Field replied: “I think it’s just because they’re a foreign company—I think that’s the only thing.”
