BIG PHARMA WATCH: NOVO NORDISK LAUNCHES WEGOVY IN CHINA AT 85 PERCENT DISCOUNT COMPARED TO U.S.

Brand Name Manufacturers Continue to Charge U.S. Patients Highest Prices in the World, Including on Blockbuster GLP-1 Drugs for Diabetes and Weight Loss

According to reports this week, brand name drug maker Novo Nordisk recently launched its blockbuster GLP-1 product for weight loss, Wegovy, in China at a more than 85 percent discount compared to the price of the drug in the United States.

Novo Nordisk’s list price for Wegovy in the U.S.: $1,349

Novo Nordisk’s list price for Wegovy in China: $194

Big Pharma has long targeted U.S. patients and the U.S. health care system with the highest prices for prescription drugs in the world – and that bad deal remains true for the relatively new class of blockbuster GLP-1 drugs for weight loss.

Big Pharma’s Egregious Pricing of GLP-1 Drugs in the U.S.

An August 2023 analysis from the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker found that list prices for several blockbuster GLP-1 drugs, including Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic, Wegovy and Rybelsus products, as well as Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro, are significantly higher in the U.S. compared to other wealthy countries.

Brand name drug maker Novo Nordisk, for example, has set the U.S. list price for a monthly supply of Ozempic at $936 in the U.S. versus $169 in Japan. This means the company is charging patients 5.5 times more in the U.S. than in Japan for the same drug.

For Wegovy, the U.S. list price is $1,349, while the next highest price in a comparable country is $328 in Germany, again demonstrating U.S. patients pay more than four times more than the next comparable country for the same prescription drug.

Prices of GLP-1s Unsustainable for U.S. Health Care System

In March, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) predicted that covering GLP-1 weight loss drugs “at their current prices would cost the federal government more than it would save from reducing other health care spending.” In October, the CBO followed this up with an analysis that found that the cost of expanding Medicare coverage for anti-obesity medications (AOMs), including blockbuster brand name GLP-1s, “would increase federal spending, on net, by about $35 billion from 2026 to 2034.”

In August, a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine by re­searchers from Brigham and Women’s Hos­pi­tal found that if Medicare Part D coverage for high-priced GLP-1 weight loss drugs expanded for new classifications such as cardiovascular disease, it could cost the U.S. health care system upwards of $145 billion.

During a December 2023 hearing in the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP), expert witness Kasia Lipska, M.D., M.H.S, Associate Professor of Medicine at the Yale School of Medicine, explained how Big Pharma’s egregious pricing practices on this new category of drugs present staggering potential costs.

“The price tags for these new medications are simply outrageous,” Dr. Lipska said. “Ozempic, the brand name for Semaglutide approved for type 2 diabetes and marketed by Novo Nordisk, has a U.S. list price of over $900 per month. Wegovy, the brand name for the same drug approved for obesity, is $1,300 per month…”

“…If Medicare were to fully cover Wegovy for all of its beneficiaries with obesity for one year, we as American taxpayers would end up with a $268 billion invoice,” Dr. Lipska stated. “To give you some perspective, that’s 70 percent of all the money that was spent on prescription drugs in the U.S. in 2021. And could we stop at one year? Probably not. What we know about Semaglutide and the related medications is that they work while people take them. However, as soon as they stop, their weight comes back, so patients are looking at a potentially lifelong treatment, and we could be facing the most expensive subscription service in the history of medicine.”

Big Pharma Already Hiking Prices On GLP-1 Products

In addition, the brand name drug companies who market these drugs have already begun hiking prices. In January, Novo Nordisk increased prices on its Ozempic product, approved for type 2 diabetes, by 3.5 percent. Novo Nordisk increased the price of Ozempic by 4.9 percent in 2023 and 4.8 percent in 2022. Eli Lilly increased prices on its Mounjaro GLP-1 type 2 diabetes product earlier this year by 4.5 percent and in 2023 by five percent.

The massive cost implications of Big Pharma’s egregious pricing on GLP-1 drugs for weight loss increases the urgency for policymakers to hold the pharmaceutical industry accountable and advance bipartisan, market-based solutions to lower prescription drug prices.

Read more about how brand name drug maker Novo Nordisk is charging patients significantly less for GLP-1 weight loss drugs in China compared to the U.S. HERE.

Read more about how Big Pharma’s prices on blockbuster GLP-1 weight loss drugs are unsustainable HERE.

Learn more about market-based solutions to hold Big Pharma accountable and lower prescription drug prices HERE.

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