By Ahmed Abulenein

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Senator Bernie Sanders on Wednesday expressed confidence that Novo Nordisk (NYSE: charges compared to prices in other countries.

Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Jorgensen is set to testify before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, chaired by Sanders, at a September hearing focused on U.S. prices for Ozempic and Wegovy.

“I think we got a real opportunity and I was glad to see President Biden support that effort,” Sanders told Reuters in a telephone interview.

The strategy worked for Sanders last year when he faced Novo, Eli Lilly (NYSE: ) and Sanofi (NASDAQ: ) over the high price of insulin. All three companies announced they were cutting prices ahead of a scheduled HELP committee hearing after months of lobbying.

“I think the most important thing we can do, and we’ve done it successfully in the past with insulin, is to focus on the greed of the pharmaceutical industry in general, and Novo Nordisk in particular. they’re ripping off the American people,” Sanders said.

A spokesman for Novo Nordisk said the net prices of both drugs – how much the company actually received – had fallen by 40% since the drugs were launched, but those savings were not being passed on to consumers, which the pharmacist blamed on pharmacy benefit managers in his letter. to the committee. Sanders said the price drop wasn’t enough.

Pharmacy benefit managers act as intermediaries between drug companies and consumers.

More than 80 percent of Americans with insurance pay $25 or less a month for the drugs, a Novo Nordisk spokesman said.

Sanders said people who pay that much are still affected by high prices because insurance companies still pay a lot for the drugs, which increases insurance prices as well as hospital costs.

“It’s very difficult for any company, especially a company that has record profits, to defend itself when it charges the American people many times more for the exact same drug than it charges people in other countries,” Sanders said. .

Sanders wants to see Novo lower the price of Ozempic in the United States to about $155, the price of the drug in Canada.

A one-month supply of Novo Ozempic’s diabetes drug, which has the same active ingredient as Wegovy and is used off-label for weight loss, has a US list price of $935.77, while Wegovy lists for $1,349.02 per month, according to the drugmaker’s website, though most consumers pay less.

Unparalleled demand for newer weight-loss drugs from Novo and Lilly has sent the companies’ share prices soaring, making them among the most valuable companies in the world.

Sanders acknowledged that he was currently focused on Novo Nordisk because it is on track to become the most profitable drug in history, but said he would “definitely” reach out to Eli Lilly, which sells rival drugs Mounjaro and Zepbound. describing their prices as “obscene.”

Mounjaro and Zepbound list for around $1,100 per month.

Some analysts have predicted that the total market for weight loss drugs will exceed $100 billion by the end of the decade.

“Eli Lilly is also a big player. We know that, so we’re not biased against Novo,” Saunders said.

PBMS ALSO IN CROSS SAMPLE

Sanders said he plans to introduce legislation that expands the maximum number of drugs eligible for Medicare price negotiations to 50 a year from 20 and expands the $2,000 annual cap on out-of-pocket costs for Americans outside of Medicare. He said he hopes to secure bipartisan support for the measures.

President Joe Biden called for both provisions in his State of the Union address earlier this year.

Sanders also plans to scrutinize pharmacy benefit managers — who determine which drugs are covered by insurance and at what price, and which drug companies blame for high prescription drug costs — but said pharmacists can’t use that as an excuse.

“To say that PBMs play a negative role is true, but despite the fact that … (pharma companies) are still ripping off the American people,” Sanders said.

Novo Nordisk has not cooperated constructively with the Senate committee, Sanders said. The company announced that its CEO will testify before a Senate committee after being threatened with a subpoena by Sanders.

Novo Nordisk offered to hold briefings for committee staff, the company spokesman said, but no briefings were scheduled. He also sent a 22-page letter responding to the committee’s questions, the spokesman said.

“Novo, in all of its press releases, keeps saying it wants to work constructively with elected officials. It doesn’t,” Sanders said. “They haven’t come back to us with anything constructive.”