Bernie Sanders, the independent Senator from Vermont, has long been railing against the price of prescription medications in the U.S., as Americans pay the highest prices for drugs in the world. But Sen. Sanders scored a win on Friday, as the CEO of Novo Nordisk, the maker of Ozempic, agreed to testify about the prices he’s charging consumers.
Sen. Sanders is chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), where he’s been investigating Big Pharma and the prices that 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, the CEO of Denmark-based Novo Nordisk, to force him to testify. But the senator announced late Friday that Jørgensen has agreed to voluntarily appear before his committee in September.
“I enjoyed the opportunity of chatting with Mr. Jørgensen this afternoon and thank him for agreeing to voluntarily testify on a solo panel before the HELP Committee on the high cost of Ozempic and Wegovy in the United States,” Sen. Sanders said in a press release. “The scheduled subpoena vote is no longer necessary and will be canceled.”
“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 a month for Ozempic, while this same exact drug can be purchased for just $155 in Canada and just $59 in Germany. Novo Nordisk also charges Americans with obesity $1,349 a month for Wegovy, while this same exact product can be purchased for just $140 in Germany and $92 in the United Kingdom.”
Part of the problem is that it’s illegal for Medicare to negotiate with the drug companies on most medications, something that only changed recently. The Inflation Reduction Act passed in 2022 will now allow Medicare to negotiate on just 10 drugs, but Big Pharma has been fighting that modest change in court. KFF News reports that Ozempic and Wegovy could potentially be up for negotiation next year, but Medicare hasn’t released the list of which new drugs may be negotiable until September.
But incremental change for the better is preferable to no change. And the same goes for having pharmaceutical executives appear to answer questions about price gouging. Sen. 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 or 15 times more for these medications than people in other countries,” Sanders said.
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