Under pressure from the US Congress, the head of the Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, which sells the successful drugs Ozempic and Wegovy for diabetes and obesity, agreed on Tuesday to "look into" lowering their prices in the United States.
"Will you commit today to having Novo Nordisk substantially reduce the suggested price of these drugs in the United States?" U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders asked Danish CEO Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen during a congressional hearing.
"We will be happy to look into anything that could help patients gain access to affordable medications," he replied.
The stakes are high for American patients, some of whom have difficulty accessing these drugs that have revolutionized the treatment of these widespread diseases.
If they are not "made affordable, Americans will die needlessly," Sanders said.
He recalled that the price set by Novo Nordisk in the United States for Ozempic, an antidiabetic, was $969 per month, compared to $71 in France. The same order of magnitude for its counterpart against obesity, Wegovy.
But Mr. Jorgensen pointed out that 80% of Americans with health insurance pay $25 or less a month.
And that this high price was not the one collected by his company, but the one set for negotiations with different actors.
The discussions revolved around the role of intermediaries called "Pharmacy benefit managers" (PBMs), who are tasked by insurance companies with negotiating discounts with pharmaceutical companies and listing treatments covered.
These PBMs "charge fees based on the suggested price," Jorgensen said. "So the higher the suggested price, the more they get paid for the same work. That means, in our experience, products with lower suggested prices are less well-covered" by health insurance because "they are less attractive."
For example, since Novo Nordisk lowered the price of insulin treatments, "our products have been removed from the list of covered medicines, which has reduced patient access."
US Senator Bernie Sanders responded that he had received a promise from three major PBMs not to limit coverage of Ozempic and Wegovy if their prices were lowered.
"Do I have your promise that you will sit down at a table with these three companies to make sure they deliver on their commitment?" Sanders asked the Novo Nordisk boss.
“Yes, I support anything that can help patient access,” he replied.
English 
French