Ozempic “very likely” to have its price reduced

The Inflation Relief Act, which allows the US to negotiate drug prices directly with manufacturers for the first time, last month cut the cost of 10 of the world’s top drugs by 38% to 79% by 2026. The 15 drugs targeted for the next round are expected to be named by early next year, drawing widespread speculation about what treatments will be in the government’s sights.

“It is very likely that Ozempic will be part of the next round of negotiations and we are ready for that,” said Ulrich Otte, senior vice president of finance and operations for Novo Nordisk, at the Cantor Global Healthcare Conference in New York. .

Novo’s U.S. depositary receipts fell as much as 3.7 percent on Tuesday before paring their decline.

While Ozempic is officially approved in the US to treat diabetes, it is also one of the few drugs widely used for weight loss. It has a list price of $968.52 per month in the US and is covered by most Medicare plans for type 2 diabetes. Many health analysts said they expected it to be on the list for the next round of price cuts .

Price haggling

One million Americans currently take Novo’s weight-loss drugs, Otte said. The company also sells a higher-dose version of Ozempic, called Wegovy, for obesity.

The cost of these drugs is higher in the US than in most other countries, with many already negotiating prices, creating political pressure as the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services identify drugs for each round of negotiations.

Read more: Why prescription drug prices are so high in the US: QuickTake

Novo chief executive Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen will testify before a Senate committee led by Senator Bernie Sanders on drug prices next week.

Government price interventions could have a significant impact on innovation if they become “too dramatic,” Otte said, adding that it was too early to speculate.

“We feel we have an incredibly strong case in health economics,” he said.

The US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is scheduled to announce the next round of 15 retail drugs that will be part of the negotiations by February 1, 2025. The agency will announce the maximum fair prices for them by November 30, 2025. , and the negotiated prices will enter into force on January 1, 2027.

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