NEWS: Sanders Announces Generic Pharma Companies Willing to Sell Ozempic for Less than $100

NEWS: Sanders Announces Generic Pharma Companies Willing to Sell Ozempic for Less than $100

WASHINGTON, Sept. 17 – Ahead of next week’s hearing with Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Jørgensen, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee (HELP), today announced that CEOs of major generic pharmaceutical companies are willing to sell Ozempic to Americans for less than $100 per month at a profit.

Novo Nordisk currently charges Americans with Type 2 diabetes $969 a month for Ozempic, while this same exact drug can be purchased for just $155 in Canada, $122 in Denmark, and just $59 in Germany. Incredibly, Novo Nordisk also charges Americans with obesity $1,349 a month for Wegovy, while this same exact product can be purchased for just $186 in Denmark, $140 in Germany, and $92 in the United Kingdom.

As President Joe Biden and Sanders co-wrote this July: “If Novo Nordisk and other pharmaceutical companies refuse to substantially lower prescription drug prices in our country and end their greed, we will do everything within our power to end it for them.”

In March, a study from researchers at Yale University found these drugs could be profitably manufactured for less than $5 a month, or $57 per year.

The discussion, hosted today by Sanders, included testimony from: 

  • A patient who was forced to ration Ozempic, because she could not afford the outrageous price charged by Novo Nordisk;
  • A doctor who is sick and tired of drug companies ripping her patients off;
  • A Republican state official who has been demanding that Novo Nordisk charge the same price to the people that teach, protect, and serve in his state that the company charges people in Canada and Denmark; 
  • A Yale economist who estimates it costs just $5 to manufacture these drugs;
  • An epidemiologist who estimates that we could save 43,000 lives per year in the U.S. if Wegovy and weight-loss drugs were made widely available.

The announcement comes on the heels of a letter released by more than 250 physicians across the country, calling on Congress to rein in the exorbitant prices of GLP-1s, like Ozempic and Wegovy.