Insulin detemir

Committee chair Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, initially threatened to subpoena Novo Nordisk's CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen to ensure his appearance at the hearing. When government officials and politicians scrutinize high U.S. drug prices, the role of insurers and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) often commands at least some of the attention.Tuesday, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee's hearing on Ozempic and Wegovy prices, which featured Novo Nordisk's CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen as the sole witness, was no different. In his opening remarks, committee chair Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, angled to dismantle Jorgensen's PBM-related defense by revealing a written commitment from the nation's three largest insurers that they would not limit coverage if Novo were to cut the list prices of its massively popular GLP-1 drugs.  Cigna Group, CVS Health and UnitedHealth, which together comprise the majority of the commercial insurance market, each confirmed that lowered prices would not adversely affect patient access through their respective programs. The insurers each operate large PBM divisions.As it stands, PBMs receive bigger rebates on drugs with higher costs, a dynamic that can result in lower-priced drugs being placed lower on formularies or dropped altogether from the coverage lists. Last year, the HELP committee proposed a bipartisan PBM reform bill that has yet to pass to the Senate floor.At the hearing, Jorgenson expressed “a bit of concern” for how Ozempic and Wegovy price cuts could play out on the PBM side, citing prior experience with Novo’s insulin Levemir being removed from formularies after a price cut. But the CEO said he'd "be happy to” sit down with the PBMs and discuss options.“I understand that perhaps the PBMs have changed their mind, and I'll be happy to collaborate with them on this, because anything that helps patients to get access and affordability, we are supportive of,” he added.  Jørgensen’s concern was in reference to its recent experience with the long-acting insulin Levemir, which will be discontinued by the end of this year due in part to formulary concerns, Novo has said. The move came after the insulin maker agreed to slash Levemir’s price by 65%.“We dropped the price, yet to find that PBMs dropped access to Levemir, so much less patients have access to it,” Jørgensen said.Still, throughout the hearing, the CEO reiterated his support of working with the PBMs. As for what happens next, Jørgensen is less certain, but he agreed that the company is open to lowering prices “if it works in a way where patients get access to a more affordable medicine, and we have certainty that it actually happens.”"Our hope is that the conversation with the HELP Committee will result in real and tangible solutions that benefit patients and allow millions of people living with these serious and chronic diseases to be the direct beneficiaries of real change,” Novo said in an emailed statement following the hearing. 

The company's CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen is set to appear for questioning and testimony before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) committee on Tuesday. After circling Novo Nordisk and its high GLP-1 drug prices for months, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, and the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) committee will soon get their long-awaited chance to grill into Novo’s CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen.Jorgensen will face questions from the committee at a Tuesday hearing titled, "Why Is Novo Nordisk Charging Americans with Diabetes and Obesity Outrageously High Prices for Ozempic and Wegovy?" after agreeing to testify following Sanders’ threat of a subpoena.The HELP committee investigated Novo’s pricing earlier this year, finding that the company charges $969 per month in the U.S. for type 2 diabetes drug Ozempic, $155 in Canada, $122 in the company’s home country of Denmark and $59 in Germany. Monthly list prices for Ozempic's obesity counterpart Wegovy stand at $1,349 in the U.S., $140 in Germany and $92 in the U.K., according to the lawmakers. In prepared remarks released ahead of the hearing, the CEO delves deep into his company’s history, highlighting the creation of semaglutide in 2004 as a follow-up to Novo’s liraglutide. Semaglutide is the molecule behind the company's high-profile diabetes and obesity blockbusters.In a separate written statement submitted to the HELP committee, Jørgensen explained the lengthy journey Novo’s scientists traveled to develop the company's GLP-1 meds. The total R&D investment on the meds is “difficult to comprehensively quantify” but is well over $10 billion, the CEO said.Novo is still studying the drugs to add new indications, and it's simultaneously expanding manufacturing capacity to meet high demand, the CEO explained.Since the start of 2023, the Danish pharma has committed over $30 billion to expand its manufacturing capacity, Jørgensen pointed out in his prepared statement. That’s 20% more than “the entire U.S. Space Program” and four times the number that Congress set aside for a national electric vehicle charging network, the chief added.The CEO agrees that patients “need both affordability and access,” but he points to a lack of insurance coverage as a key barrier.“It is clear that patients too often struggle to navigate the complex U.S. healthcare system,”  Jørgensen said in his statement. “It is also clear that no single company alone can solve such vast and complicated policy changes.”In his written statement, the CEO elaborates on the “systemic issues” at play in the healthcare system. Jørgensen pointed a finger at pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and cautioned that reducing list prices on a product can result in PBMs dropping coverage in their formularies, citing Novo's now-discontinued insulin Levemir as an example.Jørgensen noted that Ozempic will soon be eligible for Inflation Reduction Act-mandated price cuts, meaning that its prices will almost certainly drop over the next few years. The company's bigger focus is ensuring insurance coverage to promote access.  Ozempic is currently covered by 99% of commercial insurance plans, plus Medicare and Medicaid in all 50 states, according to Jørgensen. As for Wegovy, the obesity drug is covered by half of commercial plans, plus over 20 state Medicare plans and other organizations such as the Department of Veteran’s Affairs and the military, according to the CEO. The company blames the lower Wegovy coverage levels on a “prejudicial stigma” obesity patients face, but it's “confident” that it will secure additional insurance coverage in the near future, according to the CEO.While the hearing is sure to draw a range of perspectives on pharma pricing dynamics, Novo has some organizations on its side. In a recent letter to Sanders, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce expressed “deep concern” over the hearing.“As the title of the hearing itself indicates, along with your many previous public statements, this isn’t an exercise in fact-finding,” the letter noted. “It is clear you have already formed your conclusions and are now using an official Congressional proceeding to berate, vilify, and intimidate a private company because you disagree with their decisions.”