Ozempic maker defends high U.S. price: It's 'helping' reduce the cost of obesity
Category: News & Politics
Via: perrie-halpern • one month ago • 18 commentsBy: Berkeley Lovelace Jr. and Meagan Fitzgerald
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The CEO of Novo Nordisk defended the high cost of Ozempic and Wegovy in the U.S., saying the blockbuster drugs are ultimately saving taxpayers money on obesity-related costs.
"If you look at just the cost of obesity in the U.S., it's a disease that costs Americans more than $400 billion a year," Lars Fruergaard Jrgensen said in an interview on "NBC Nightly News." "And we are actually providing products that's actually helping take that cost burden off."
Jrgensen, who spoke to NBC News before the company's "quiet period" ahead of its last earnings report, calledaccusations that the company is operating as a drug cartel "unfounded."
Jrgensen is scheduled to testify about the U.S. pricing of the drugmaker's hugely popular diabetes and weight loss drugs at a highly anticipated Senate committee hearing next month.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., chair of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, told NBC News in June that he plans to ask Jrgensen why Novo Nordisk charges up to 10 to 15 times more for Ozempic and Wegovy in the U.S. than it does in other countries. It charges around $1,300 a month for Wegovy in the U.S., according to a HELP Committee report, while the drug can be purchased for $186 a month in Denmark, $137 in Germany and $92 in the United Kingdom.
"It is clear that Novo Nordisk is ripping off the American people," Sanders said.
The cost of obesity-related care in the U.S. is substantial.
A report published last year from KFF, a nonprofit group that researches health policy issues, found that in 2021, people with employer-based health insurance who were overweight or had obesity had an average of $12,588 in total annual health costs, more than double the $4,699 in health spending for those who weren't overweight or didn't have obesity. People who are overweight or have obesity also face higher out-of-pocket costs: an average of $1,487, compared with $698 for those without those conditions.
Still, Stacie Dusetzina, a health policy professor at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, said that at Ozempic's and Wegovy's current prices, the savings that could be gained from reducing the burden of obesity-related care aren't enough to make up for the large increase in spending on the drugs.
"For many people, these drugs might be a very good option for improving their health, but it is unlikely that they will reduce total spending," Dusetzina said. "In general, the price of these drugs would need to come down a lot in order to have a chance for them to produce overall savings in health care spending."
A complex health care system
Jrgensen said he "volunteered" to speak with the committee about the cost of Ozempic and Wegovy at the hearing next month. His announcement to do so came three days after Sanders threatened to hold a vote to subpoena Novo Nordisk's president, Doug Langa.
Jrgensen said he plans to talk about the "complexities of the U.S. health care system, which is a system we take part in but we cannot change."
"That takes policy change," he said, blaming insurance companies and pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, for the high out-of-pocket costs patients pay for the drugs.
PBMs work with insurers to negotiate rebates, or discounted prices, from the drug companies in exchange for including the drugs in their coverage. But as PBMs consolidate and hold more influence over what drugs are covered, experts say, they may be inflating drug costs.
In July, the Federal Trade Commission published an interim report about how PBMs are driving up costs for patients.
"I do acknowledge that some patients have poor insurance," Jrgensen said. "And if you have poor insurance, it can be difficult to afford your medicines. And for those we have patient support programs where we try to help them out."
Jrgensen also said the U.S. needs to have a "discussion around what's the value of these medicines" for patients.
Cynthia Cox, a vice president at KFF and the director of its program on the Affordable Care Act, said that while the drugs can prevent and reduce a number of obesity-related diseases, they remain expensive and that it's unclear how long people will need to stay on them to maintain weight loss and improved health.
"The widespread use of these drugs for weight loss is still relatively new, so I'm not sure there is enough long-term data to fully weigh the costs and benefits," Cox said.
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I had 3 people in one week looking for Wegovy proscribed for weight loss and they will have to pay something like $1300 out of pocket because none the carriers will not cover it for weight loss. Ozempic is a tier 3 drug so patients will have higher out of pocket costs for this, IF they can find it.
And all it takes is eating less eating less and exercising more.
Exactly and avoiding:
Imagine how much taxpayer money could be saved if everybody could afford it.
Did you know that Congressional regulations specifically prohibits the VA from paying for gym memberships for disabled veterans? $80 a month for a gym membership is a lot cheaper than $750 a month for Ozempic.
I didn't know that. MediCal pays for them.
Yes. Most insurance plans also have that benefit.
No wonder that Ozempic can afford to bother me with so many commercials
If that is the case, WTF is wrong with the insurance industry? Or, doesn't "an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure" mean anything anymore? They should be jumping on this to save future expenditures...........but then they couldn't raise rates if their costs were down......Stupidity.
The pharmaceutical companies blame the insurance companies and the insurance companies blame the pharmaceutical companies. Then when pressed they both blame government regulation. I do know that insurance companies are not in the insurance business. They are in the investment business where they make most of their profits.
If these drugs could people lower their A1C, it could get them off insulin and other diabetes drugs.
Absolutely. Big Pharma can't have that now, can they? It must be the insurance companies are in cahoots.
Finding a good martial art instructor would be better.
After a year of karate I feel better than I have in 10 years.
An ounce of profit to an insurance company is worth a ton of suffering for the people
Lol who are they trying to kid? This is about greater profits pure and simple
Yes, I once saw a college/university professor being interviewed about the cost of a college education and he had the temerity to state that the high cost of "higher" education would pan out over the course of one's life! (Thus, in his view, such exorbitant costs for education at his institution is justified.)
Something similar to the above, sounds like what this maker of Ozempic is stating: The results justify this cost for a future success story.
I am not sure how I should process that then or now.
To be clear, I am a firm believer in paying for what I need to get the results I seek—period. However, I do want to be treated in a way that I keep my dignity when all is said and done, and not be subjected to abuse.
Morning..
$31.60 ($21.38 US) here on the PBS or if you are a pensioner $7.70 ($5.21US)...
So yep you mob are being ripped off big time...