A field of Ozempic made by Novo Nordisk, at a pharmacy in London on March 8, 2024.
Hollie Adams | Reuters
Novo Nordisk on Monday stated it now affords cash-paying U.S. sufferers its blockbuster diabetes remedy Ozempic for lower than half its month-to-month checklist value, as drugmakers face mounting political stress to decrease costs within the nation.
Sufferers will pay $499 in money monthly for 3 dose sizes of Ozempic. They will get the value by means of platforms together with the drug’s official web site, Novo Nordisk’s affected person help program and the corporate’s not too long ago launched direct-to-consumer on-line pharmacy, the latter of which additionally ships the injection on to sufferers’ houses.
Drug financial savings firm GoodRx may also supply Ozempic and its weight reduction counterpart Wegovy for $499 monthly, making the reductions obtainable at greater than 70,000 pharmacies nationwide, in keeping with a Novo Nordisk launch.
Novo Nordisk’s cash-pay providing will increase entry to eligible Sort 2 diabetes sufferers who do not have insurance coverage protection for the weekly injection. In March, the corporate started to supply Wegovy for half its checklist value to cash-paying Individuals.
Ozempic’s checklist value earlier than insurance coverage and different rebates is sort of $1,350 monthly, and has been a frequent goal of political and public blowback lately. The brand new supply comes after President Donald Trump in July despatched separate letters to Novo Nordisk and 16 different drugmakers, calling on them to take steps to decrease remedy costs within the U.S. Amongst different advised actions, he urged them to undertake fashions that promote medicines on to customers or companies.
The efforts goal to make Ozempic and Wegovy obtainable to extra folks, whereas additionally guaranteeing that sufferers use the branded remedy as an alternative of cheaper compounded copycats. These medication exploded in reputation throughout a now-resolved U.S. scarcity of Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide, the energetic ingredient in each medication.
Whereas Ozempic “is effectively lined within the US, let’s not overlook that there are some sufferers who pay out-of-pocket for this important medication,” Dave Moore, government vice chairman of U.S. operations and international enterprise improvement at Novo Nordisk, stated within the launch. “We imagine that if even a single affected person feels the necessity to flip to probably unsafe and unapproved knockoff alternate options, that is one too many.”
Eli Lilly has equally moved to slash the value of its in style weight problems and diabetes medication for cash-paying sufferers. The 2 corporations are preventing to dominate the marketplace for so-called GLP-1s, which mimic sure intestine hormones to suppress urge for food and regulate blood sugar.
