'Novo Nordisk, Lilly must cut prices of weight-loss drugs, Biden says'

 U.S. President Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders called on Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly to reduce the prices of their weight loss and diabetes drugs, in a jointly authored opinion piece published in USA Today on Tuesday.

Surging demand for Novo and Lilly's drugs, which have been shown to help patients lose as much as 20% of their weight on average, has propelled the drugmakers' shares to record highs, and led some experts to expect the market for those treatments to reach $150 billion by the early 2030s.

More than 40% of Americans are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Biden and Sanders in their opinion piece for USA Today said it could cost $411 billion per year if only half of obese adults took Novo and Lilly's weight loss drugs, which is $5 billion more than Americans spent on all prescription drugs in 2022.

"If the prices of these drugs are not substantially reduced, they have the potential to bankrupt the American healthcare system," Biden and Sanders said.

"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. Novo Nordisk must substantially reduce the price of Ozempic and Wegovy."

A month's supply of Novo's diabetes drug Ozempic carries a list price of $935.77 in the U.S., while its obesity treatment Wegovy is priced at $1,349.02 per month, according to the drugmaker's website.

Lilly's Mounjaro, a diabetes drug that is also used off-label for weight loss, costs about $1,100 per month.

Novo and Eli Lilly did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment. Shares of the Danish drugmaker fell nearly 3%, while those of Lilly were down 3.2% in morning trading.

Although Biden and Sanders did not say what actions they might take, both have records of pushing drugmakers to lower their prices.

Sanders last year questioned insulin makers, including Novo and Lilly, and pharmacy benefits middlemen on their roles in keeping drug prices high, and is expected to grill Novo CEO Lars Jorgensen on the price of Ozempic and Wegovy in September.

Biden's signature Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law in 2022, aims to save $25 billion annually by 2031 by requiring drugmakers to negotiate the prices of select expensive drugs with the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service, which oversees Medicare.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/novo-nordisk-must-cut-prices-122350737.html