It seems that Novo Nordisk, producers of Ozempic (a popular treatment for diabetes) and Wegovy (ditto for weight loss), has been gouging the hell out of US customers to subsidize much, much lower prices elsewhere in the world.
It costs Novo Nordisk less than $5 per month to produce its top-selling diabetes injection, Ozempic, even as it charges nearly $1,000 for a month’s supply before insurance, according to a new study.
. . .
The foundational price for a weekly dose of injectable semaglutide—the generic name for Ozempic—ranges from $0.89 to $4.73 per month, the study found. By contrast, a vial of human insulin can be manufactured at a cost between $2.37 and $5.94 per month.
A month’s supply of Ozempic is $935.77 for those in the United States without health insurance, according to Novo’s website. The Danish company’s GLP-1 weight loss drug, Wegovy, is listed as $1,349 per month.
. . .
Citing the findings, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called on Novo to slash prices for both Ozempic and Wegovy, highlighting the price gap for the identical drugs sold in America and other developed countries.
“A new Yale study found that Ozempic costs less than $5 a month to manufacture. And yet, Novo Nordisk charges Americans nearly $1,000 a month for this drug, while the same exact product can be purchased for just $155 a month in Canada and just $59 in Germany,” the senator said in a statement ... “I am calling on Novo Nordisk to lower the list price of Ozempic—and the related drug Wegovy—in America to no more than what they charge for this drug in Canada,” he continued. “The American people are sick and tired of paying, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs while the pharmaceutical industry enjoys huge profits.”
There's more at the link.
I'm hardly in the same political camp as Senator Sanders, but I fully support him in this. Novo Nordisk is far from the only company to charge super-high prices to US consumers, only to provide the same medication to the rest of the world at a tenth, or less than a tenth, of those prices. The companies parrot the same line about it not being fair to compare non-insurance (i.e. full market) prices to those paid by people with medical insurance, but that misses the point. The medical insurance premiums we pay are much higher than they need to be, precisely because of the higher prices of medications, surgeries, etc. on the US market. If drug manufacturers were to lower their list prices to something more appropriate to their costs of research and production, we'd all pay a lot less.
It's easy to say that people can choose where to spend their money, and they can reject items that are too expensive - but medication is all too often essential, not optional, and that forces sick people to either pay the price, or accept decline and an early death.
We criticize US companies for exporting the production of their goods to Third World countries, thereby saving themselves a bundle but throwing literally millions of Americans out of work, or depriving them of work that pays (or used to pay) a decent wage. Yet, at the same time, we have little to say about the producers of essentials like medication who charge whatever the system says they can get away with, and relentlessly gouge the US consumer, while giving a subsidized ride (at our expense) to the rest of the world. Why are we not insisting that such companies justify their price differentials, and price their product more equitably in all their markets, including ours? Why are we allowing them to subsidize others out of our pockets?
Peter