Novo Nordisk's CEO faced lawmakers in a grueling 2.5-hour hearing to discuss the cost of blockbuster drugs Ozempic and Wegovy.
) CEO Lars Jørgensen told lawmakers Tuesday he was willing to sit down with pharmacy benefit managers to discuss a lower price for Wegovy and Ozempic, the company's blockbuster weight-loss and diabetes drugs , respectively, in order to expand access to the drugs.
Jørgensen also emphasized that, unlike American pharmaceutical companies, the Danish drugmaker is owned by a large nonprofit "rivaling the Gates Foundation," and therefore, its incentive is not to please shareholders.Jørgensen noted that Novo has already discounted the net price of Ozempic by 40% since launching in 2017.
After initially sidestepping a similar question from Sanders, when pressed by Sen. Mike Braun , Jørgensen confirmed that the company is still making a profit at the price point in Australia of $87., he has learned that a generic version can be made for $100. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggested that GLP-1s could be manufactured for as little as $5.
At the hearing Tuesday, Jørgensen said that the commitment from PBMs was new information to him, but that access to the lower-priced insulins had decreased.
Sen. Bernie Sanders Diabetes Drugs CEO Lars Jørgensen Drug Prices Jørgensen
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