When one year’s sales matches a full three decade research budget, price gouging is clearly afoot. And that’s the case for Novo Nordisk A/S, maker of sister GLP-1 drugs Ozempic (type 2 diabetes, T2D) and Wegovy (obesity).
In September, Bloomberg estimated that the two drugs would bring in $65 billion in sales by the end of 2024. The entire research budget for the past three decades is $68 billion, with the company stating that its R&D budget for 2023 was only $5 billion or about 7% of sales in 2024.
News reports note that Novo Nordisk charges US patients about $1,000 per month for Ozempic and almost $1,400 for Wegovy. Currently, insurance provides coverage when described for T2D but not obesity. Given that obesity is a risk factor for T2D, this decision seems shortsighted; but that’s for another day.
In its home country of Denmark, Novo Nordisk reduced the price for Ozempic under governmental pressure by a third. It’s now costs the government $130 a month in Denmark for patients with T2D. Wegovy is not covered by the state health care plane and would cost Denmark patients $365 out of pocket per month.
Ozempic price in Germany? $92 a month.
That’s 10-fold price premium for Ozempic in the US when compared with Germany.
Yet researchers estimate that Ozempic could be produced for $5 a month, or less, including a profit margin.
This is an oligopolistic market, and as such it should be regulated. Three firms — Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly, and Sanofi — “control more than more than 90% of the global insulin market.” These GLP-1 drugs fall into the insulin market due to their impact on diabetes; many patients are able to reduce or stop insulin when taking Ozempic.
A study from Yale reported that the drugs could be “manufactured for 89 cents to $4.73 for a month’s supply, figures that include a profit margin.”
It’s rare for drugs targeting a wide patient population to charge such high list prices. Pfizer Inc.’s cholesterol pill Lipitor, for years the best-selling drug in the world, cost around $150 a month shortly before it lost patent protection in 2011, the equivalent of about $215 in today’s dollars, according to price data from 3 Axis Advisors.
“Patents linked to the drugs are likely to expire in June 2033,” Bloomberg reported in March.
Much has been written about the need to continue taking the drugs to maintain blood sugar and/or weight loss, as though that were a fault. Do writers whine about the need to take insulin or metformin indefinitely? (Ozempic eliminates the need for insulin for many.) Or cholesterol-lowering medicines? NO. So why weight loss? Could it be because our culture treats it as a personal failing?
New research shows that fat cells undergo physical changes that make it inevitable for most people to regain shedded pounds.
Fat “remembers” past obesity and resists attempts to lose weight, scientists found.
Researchers identified the biological memory after examining fat tissue from people with obesity before and after they lost weight after bariatric surgery. The tissues were further compared with fat from healthy individuals who had never been obese.
Note: I started taking Ozempic this week to control diabetes that is resistant to Metformin.
Known for gnawing at complex questions like a terrier with a bone. Digital evangelist, writer, teacher. Transplanted Southerner; teach newbies to ride motorcycles. @kegill (Twitter and Mastodon.social); wiredpen.com