Bernie Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont, has been railing for a long time against the price of prescription drugs in the U.S., as Americans pay the highest prices for medications in the world. But Senator Sanders scored a victory Friday as CEO of Novo Nordisk, the maker of Ozempicagreed to testify about the prices it is charging consumers.
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Senator Sanders is Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, where he has been investigating Big Pharma and the prices Americans are forced to pay for drugs that have been used in recent years. for weight loss like Ozempic and Wegovy.
Sanders had previously planned to subpoena Lars Jørgensen, CEO of Denmark-based Novo Nordisk, to force him to testify. But the senator announced late Friday that Jørgensen has agreed to appear voluntarily before his committee in September.
“I enjoyed the opportunity to speak with Mr. Jørgensen this afternoon and thanked him for agreeing to voluntarily testify on an individual panel. before the HELP Committee over the high cost of Ozempic and Wegovy in the United States,” Senator Sanders said in a Press release. “The scheduled citation vote is no longer necessary and will be cancelled.”
“The American people are sick and tired of paying by far the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs,” Sanders said. “Novo Nordisk currently charges Americans with type 2 diabetes $969 per month for Ozempic, while this same drug can be purchased for just $155 in Canada and just $59 in Germany. Novo Nordisk also charges Americans $1,349 per month for Wegovy for obesity, while this exact same product can be purchased for just $140 in Germany and $92 in the UK.”
Part of the problem is that it is illegal for Medicare to negotiate with drug companies for most drugs, something that only changed recently. Inflation Reduction Act passed in 2022 will now allow Medicare to negotiate alone 10 drugs, but Big Pharma has been fighting that modest change in court. KFF News reports that Ozempic and Wegovy could potentially be ready to negotiate next year, but Medicare has not released the list of new drugs that may be negotiable. Until September.
But incremental change for the better is preferable to no change at all. And the same goes for pharmaceutical executives appearing to answer questions about pricing. Senator Sanders is the one to thank in this particular case.
“The Committee looks forward to Mr. Jørgensen explaining why Americans are paying up to ten to fifteen times more for these drugs than people in other countries,” Sanders said.
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