Bernie Sanders claims that Novo Nordisk is defrauding the American people of their money with Ozempic and Wegovy charges.

The senator from Vermont is curious as to why the pharmaceutical company costs up to 15 times as much in the United States as it does in other nations for the popular weight-loss medications.

TFD – Senator Bernie Sanders is set to question Novo Nordisk’s CEO on the high costs of their weight-loss drugs in the US, compared to other countries. With prices up to 15 times higher in America, Sanders aims to pressure the pharmaceutical giant to lower their costs. The Senate hearing in September will scrutinize the reasons behind these disparities and seek answers from Novo Nordisk’s top executive.

During a September Senate committee hearing, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., plans to question Novo Nordisk’s CEO about why the drugmaker costs up to 10 or 15 times more for Ozempic and Wegovy in the United States than in other countries.

Sanders declared in a late-Tuesday interview that “this is absurd.” “Novo Nordisk is obviously taking advantage of the American people.”

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions said on Friday that Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, CEO of Novo Nordisk, had consented to testify in September regarding the drugmaker’s extremely popular weight loss drugs and their pricing.

It happened three days after committee chairman Sanders threatened to call for a vote to summon President Doug Langa of Novo Nordisk to testify.

A Novo Nordisk representative confirmed in a different statement that Jørgensen gave his consent during “a productive call and agreed to find a mutually acceptable date for a hearing.”

Sanders said Tuesday that he is still working with Novo Nordisk to set an exact date for the hearing, but he expects it will be during the second week of September. He claimed that his straightforward plan to persuade Novo Nordisk to lower the price of the medications is to draw attention to the business.

“My goal is obviously to get them to lower their prices, and I believe that public pressure will be sufficient to achieve that,” the senator stated. This is a major problem because Ozempic and Wegovy could turn out to be the most profitable product the pharmaceutical industry has ever created.

The committee started looking into Novo Nordisk’s pricing policies in April. It cited a report that found that Novo Nordisk charges around $1,300 a month for Wegovy in the U.S., even though the drug can be purchased for $186 a month in Denmark, $137 in Germany and $92 in the United Kingdom. Some patients in the U.S. have said that the higher prices of Ozempic and Wegovy have pushed them to unregulated, copycat drugs for weight loss.

In actuality, Congress has limited power to address the exorbitant price of prescription weight-loss medications in the country. A portion of Novo Nordisk’s price increases can be attributed to the peculiarities of the US patent system.

Pharmaceutical companies that create new drugs are granted the right to sell them only in the United States for a predetermined amount of time, usually 20 years. This substantially limits competition since other companies are unable to produce generic versions of the medication during this time. Furthermore, the federal government typically does not directly regulate medicine prices, in contrast to other nations.

The active ingredient of Ozempic and Wegovy, semaglutide, has a patent that isn’t set to expire until at least 2031.

Sanders said, “This is the system, it’s a corrupt system,” in response to a question regarding the cost of prescription drugs in the United States.

He declared, “It’s a system controlled by a large pharmaceutical industry, which donates enormous sums of money to political campaigns.” “And it’s a system that allows the pharmaceutical companies to profit handsomely, even though one in four Americans cannot afford to fill their prescriptions.”

Sanders acknowledged that there are probably other parties involved in the high cost of the medications than Novo Nordisk. According to him, middlemen, commonly referred to as pharmacy benefit managers, probably raise the cost of prescription medications for Americans.

Sanders claimed that in September, Novo Nordisk requested the inclusion of other businesses, like as pharmacy benefit managers, on the panel, but he turned them down.

“That doesn’t change the fact that we are paying a significantly higher price for the same product than those in other nations,” he stated.

Novo Nordisk declined to offer more commentary regarding the statements made by Sanders.