Ahead of a Senate health committee hearing next week with Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Jørgensen, Sen. Bernie Sanders claims he has secured assurances from generics developers that they will charge a significantly lower monthly price than the $969 Americans currently pay for the Danish drugmaker’s diabetes blockbuster.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), chair of the Senate health committee, on Tuesday announced that generic versions of Novo Nordisk’s blockbuster type 2 diabetes medication Ozempic can be produced and sold profitably for less than $100 a month.
Speaking at his committee’s expert roundtable, Sanders revealed that CEOs of several major generics companies have confirmed to him that it is possible to sell Ozempic generics, “the exact same drug that Novo Nordisk is manufacturing,” according to the senator—at a dramatically lower price. Currently, the pharma charges patients in the U.S. nearly $1,000 per month for the drug, according to Sanders.
The roundtable comes ahead of a Senate health committee hearing next week, where Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen is slated to testify about the pharma’s pricing practices for Ozempic and Wegovy.
Sanders recently ramped up his critique of what he calls the “outrageously high prices” of Novo’s diabetes drug Ozempic and its sister semaglutide brand Wegovy, which is indicated for chronic weight management. In April 2024, the senator launched a probe into Novo’s pricing scheme, blasting how disproportionately more expensive these drugs are in the U.S. compared to other countries.
While a monthly supply of Ozempic goes for $969 in the U.S., patients in Canada and Germany can access the medication for $155 and $59, according to Sanders. Wegovy, meanwhile, sells for $1,349 per month in the U.S. and only $92 in the U.K. At these prices, Ozempic and Wegovy could potentially “bankrupt Medicare, Medicaid, and our entire healthcare system,” Sanders contends.
“The result of this absurd reality is that while 10 top pharmaceutical companies made over $110 billion in profits last year, 1 out of 4 Americans cannot afford the medicine their doctors prescribe,” the senator said at Tuesday’s roundtable meeting.
Sanders highlighted a March 2024 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association which found that injectable semaglutide can be manufactured at a profit for lower than $5 per month. Other GLP-1 therapies can also be produced at much cheaper than their current prices, according to the study, which noted that biosimilar and generic competition could further reduce prices.
In July 2024, Sanders co-wrote an opinion piece with President Joe Biden—published in USA Today—taking aim at both Novo and rival GLP-1 leader Eli Lilly for their “unconscionably high prices” for their therapies.
Novo Nordisk has reaped large rewards from its status as a frontrunner in the lucrative obesity market. In 2023, the Danish drugmaker generated around $33.7 billion in sales, easily beating analyst expectations driven by a 38% jump in GLP-1 diabetes revenues and a massive 147% growth in its obesity portfolio. Meanwhile, Lilly’s 2023 revenue exceeded $34 billion, growing 20% year-over-year. Its tirzepatide brands Mounjaro and Zepbound made $5.1 billion and $176 million, respectively.
