(Washington) US President Joe Biden and left-wing Senator Bernie Sanders demanded in a joint op-ed on Tuesday that Danish companies Novo Nordisk and American company Eli Lilly lower the price of their obesity treatments, which offer hope to millions of patients.
Published at 11:36 a.m.
“These drugs could be a game changer for people around the world battling type 2 diabetes and obesity,” the two men wrote in USA Today. “However, […] They will be of no use to the millions of patients who cannot afford them.”
Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders have long fought to lower high drug prices in the United States, and the Democratic president has made the issue a campaign topic ahead of the November presidential election.
Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy treatments, which use the same molecule (semaglutide) and are approved for type 2 diabetes and obesity respectively, have become real phenomena.
Eli Lilly, for its part, markets treatments called Mounjaro (against diabetes) and Zepbound (obesity) in the United States, using a molecule called tirzepatide.
PHOTO SHELBY KNOWLES, ARCHIVES BLOOMBERG
An Eli Lilly & Co. Zepbound injection pen.
All of these treatments, administered by injection, belong to a new class that mimics an intestinal hormone (GLP-1), and have quickly become best-sellersas they can result in greater weight loss than previous treatments.
But Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly charge “excessively high” amounts, write Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders.
They give the example of Mounjaro, which costs about $1,100 a month, and cite a study showing that such treatments could be manufactured for less than $5 a month and still be cost-effective.
In 2023, Novo Nordisk made a profit of more than $12 billion, they point out.
They also sound the alarm: tens of millions of Americans suffer from type 2 diabetes or obesity, and “if the prices of these drugs are not substantially reduced, they risk bankrupting the American health care system,” the two men write.
At the moment, these treatments are not always covered by health insurance, posing an access problem that patient organisations are fighting against.
Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden also point out the differences in prices paid by Americans compared to other countries.
“If Novo Nordisk and other pharmaceutical companies refuse to substantially reduce the price of prescription drugs in our country and end their greed, we will do everything in our power to end it for them,” they concluded.
Shares of both companies were down more than 3 percent Tuesday morning on the New York Stock Exchange, where the Danish group is also listed.
