1 of 2 | The CEO of Novo Nordisk is on Capitol Hill Tuesday to testify before a Senate committee about the high costs of its drugs Ozempic and Wegovy. File Photo by Ida Marie Odgaard/EPA-EFE
The CEO of Novo Nordisk is on Capitol Hill Tuesday to testify before a Senate committee about the high costs of its drugs Ozempic and Wegovy.
The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions began its investigation of the Danish drug company earlier this year. CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen will testify during the hearing that begins at 10 a.m. EST. Advertisement
The hearing will be livestreamed on the Senate committee’s website.
Chairman Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., called the prices for Ozempic and Wegovy “outrageously high.”
“I want to thank Mr. Jørgensen for our discussions and for his agreeing to voluntarily testify before the HELP Committee about the outrageously high cost of Ozempic and Wegovy in the United States,” Sanders said in a statement. “The American people are sick and tired of paying, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. They deserve to hear from Mr. Jørgensen.”
According to Sanders’ press release, Novo Nordisk charges $969 per month for Ozempic — a drug prescribed to adults with type 2 diabetes — in the United States. The drug can be purchased for $155 in Canada, $122 in Denmark and $59 in Germany. Advertisement
A month’s prescription for Wegovy in the United States costs $1,349, compared to $186 in Denmark, $140 in Germany and $92 in Britain.
Sanders alleges that three CEOs of generic pharmaceutical companies have said they could sell a generic version of Ozempic for less than $100 per month and make a profit. Novo Nordisk has made about $50 billion in sales from the sale of Ozempic and Wegovy alone.
