'Stop ripping us off': Senate grills Novo Nordisk CEO on Ozempic drug pricing

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/09/24/novo-nordisk-ceo-to-testify-at-senate-over-weight-loss-drug-prices.html

by donsupreme • 2 years ago

74 48 2 years ago

Oh, oh! Now do US pharma companies... and and, landlords. Yeah, that'll be great. And then private equity. Those are just plain bastards. Is this the end of free market capitalism?

anonzzzies• 2 years ago

But don't all other companies do the same? Also ones in the US itself? So far any price on any prescription drug I have seen on reddit by US people and companies is far cheaper here. For instance; omeprazole prescription seems to be $90 and otc $32 for almost a month: I pay less than 3 euros here (got them yesterday). Not sure who is doing it, but every US price I have seen is at least 10x higher than it is here in the EU.

faangguyindia• 2 years ago

U can get it dirt cheap from India (indian pharma grade from sunpharma)

casualscience• 2 years ago

The story goes that the US subsidizes all the drug prices around the world. Without the insane US margins, drug companies wouldn't ever do the needed R&D... so they say.

wernerb• 2 years ago

Wasn't if part of US law that medicine prices cannot be negotiated?

ZeroGravitas4• 2 years ago

If the free market has decided it's more efficient to let Americans suffer horribly and then die, who are we to argue.

gklitz2• 2 years ago

The “insane US margins” don’t go to the pharma companies, they go to the PBM middlemen who take home the majority of the list price, and therefore have interest in higher list prices, which also increases copay. That’s why it’s consistent across the USA market, and why they drop products that lower prices.

pasabagi• 2 years ago

I've read that big pharma are primarily patent companies: most of the actual research is done by universities, then most of the production is outsourced.

InfiniteLoup• 2 years ago

'Start paying us off like the US pharmaceutical companies do': Senate grills Novo Nordisk CEO on Ozempic drug pricing /s

ZeroGravitas4• 2 years ago

This bit feels like it should have been given more detail:

In his written testimony, Jørgensen said Novo Nordisk’s insulin product Levemir was previously available to 90% of U.S. patients through formularies. But insurers began to drop coverage of the insulin after Novo Nordisk cut its list price, leading to only 36% of patients having access.
That eventually drove the company to discontinue the insulin

So insurers are refusing to buy cheaper drugs? What's the story there?

Laksen• 2 years ago

It's the American PBMs that make their money on the difference between the list price and the price they sell it for. Higher list price means more profit

This was repeated over and over in the hearing. And apparently the regulation of PBMs (changed about a year ago) hasn't resulted in PBMs taking up cheaper drugs

ZeroGravitas4• 2 years ago

An interesting article on this found thanks to your help with search keywords:

https://www.americanprogress.org/article/5-things-to-know-ab...

salawat• 2 years ago

You mean the difference between wholesale price of the manufacturer and the negotiated discount by the PBM right? Your use of pronouns obfuscates who you're talking about.

ywvcbk2• 2 years ago

Do American insurance companies have any incentives to minimize their spending?

Ekaros• 2 years ago

As in not paying out money yes. As in keeping costs low no...

Bluescreenbuddy• 2 years ago

If a drug has low profitability, this is what happens. It's harming low cost but critical drugs

potatoicecoffee• 2 years ago

maybe the american government should start negotiating drug prices more effetively like the australia does with the pharmaceutical benefits scheme

datavirtue• 2 years ago

Jørgensen pointed out how drugs were only 10% of medical costs and that the real issue was obesity and the many diseases that accompany it making the drugs required in the first place.

No one seemed interested in the truth.

ImJamal2• 2 years ago

It is easier to take a drug than to eat better and work out.

DangitBobby• 2 years ago

I'm not obese and still have a prescription. Same with my wife, except she has 3. What now?

ImJamal2• 2 years ago

Your wife has 3 prescriptions for Ozempic? We aren't talking about random prescriptions here...

AStonesThrow• 2 years ago

Most of the drugs that I've been offered have weight-gain as a prominent and common side effect. Some parents even got irate about gynecomastia, which is typically not seen isolated from obesity.

How many drugs on the market have "loss of appetite/weight" as a side effect? Probably none, outside of the ones currently labeled for it. And methamphetamine. Well, there was also AZT, Fen-Phen... Didn't heroin help a few folks slim down a bit?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroin_chic

1GZ0• 2 years ago

Maybe the reason that drug prices in the US are higher across the board has more to do with insurers than the drugmakers? Sure seems like it.

JumpCrisscross3• 2 years ago

There are three problems: the capital cost of scaling production, PBMs and the absurd margins Novo Nordisk is milking.

PBMs are a separate issue. But the grand bargain in the first and last is the U.S. giving Novo Nordisk a loan in exchange for domestic production and a fixed price for the term of the loan, e.g. $50 per month, $9 cheaper than what they charge in Germany [1].

[1] https://www.help.senate.gov/chair/newsroom/press/prepared-re...

pjfin123• 2 years ago

In a release, the Senate Health Committee said it would cost the U.S. $411 billion per year if half of all Americans took weight loss drugs from Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly. That’s $5 billion more than what Americans spent on all prescription drugs in 2022.

If these drugs are effective as they seem to be they might still be worth it at this price. Giving most Americans Ozempic would probably improve people's health more per $ than the current medical system is.

kelseyfrog• 2 years ago

A recent report released by the Milken Institute shows that the annual cost and the economic impact of obesity in the United States exceeds $1.4 trillion.[1]

A 3.17x return on investment is a steal!

1. https://obesitymedicine.org/blog/health-economic-impact-of-o...

gklitz2• 2 years ago

Lost all respect for Bernie on this. He’s just blatantly saying that he’s colluding with PBMs. And imagine the absurdity of what he’s saying at the trial.

He’s saying he’s had pre talks with PBMs and they are going “we are actually willing to accept lower prices, we promise not to stop buying if you lower prices” Why would you even be in this situation in a normal market? The willingness to accept lower prices on a product should be automatic and the threat of not buying should be driving prices down not up. If the market was sane, the PBMs would be going: “Lower prices or we stop buying”

But the scam is, PBMs are eating up 70%+ of the “list price” Americans aren’t buying drugs from Pharma companies, they are buying them from their Insurance/PBM/Pharmacy collusion, who dictate both which products you are allowed to buy under insurance and what the “pretend” list price is, so they push it up to maximize their own profits and maximize your copay, which is calculated based on a hypothetical list price they have inflated 4x times while in reality only paying 25% of it themselves.

'Stop ripping us off': Senate grills Novo Nordisk CEO on Ozempic drug pricing

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