It helps reduce the cost of obesity

Novo Nordisk's CEO defends the high cost of Ozempic and Wegovy in the U.S., saying these blockbuster drugs ultimately save taxpayers money on obesity-related costs.

“If you just look at the cost of obesity in the United States, it's a disease that costs Americans more than $400 billion a year,” Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen said in an interview with NBC Nightly News, “and we actually offer products that actually help reduce that cost burden.”

Tune in to NBC Nightly News tonight at 6:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. CT to learn more.

Jørgensen, who spoke to NBC News before the company’s “quiet period” before its last earnings report, called Allegations that the company operates as a drug cartel are “unfounded.”

His comments come ahead of a highly anticipated hearing before a Senate committee in September, where he is scheduled to testify about the pricing of the drugmaker's hugely popular diabetes and weight-loss drugs in the United States.

Bernie Sanders, a Vermont senator and chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, told NBC News in June that he planned to ask Jørgensen why the drug company charges 10 to 15 times more for Ozempic and Wegovy in the United States than in other countries. According to a report by the HELP committee, Novo Nordisk charges about $1,300 a month for Wegovy in the United States, while the drug is available for $186 a month in Denmark, $137 in Germany and $92 in the United Kingdom.

“It is clear that Novo Nordisk is deceiving the American people,” Sanders said.

The cost of treating obesity is significant in the United States.

A report released last year by KFF, a nonprofit group that researches health policy issues, found that in 2021, overweight or obese people with employer-based health insurance incurred an average of $12,588 in annual health care costs, more than double the $4,699 health care spending for people without overweight or obesity. People with overweight or obesity also face higher out-of-pocket costs: an average of $1,487, compared with $698 for people without those conditions.

However, Stacie Dusetzina, a professor of health policy at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, said that at the current prices of Ozempic and Wegovy, the savings that could be achieved by reducing the burden of treating obesity would not be enough to offset the huge increase in spending on the drugs.

“For many people, these drugs could be a very good way to improve their health, but it is unlikely that they will reduce overall spending,” Dusetzina said. “In general, the prices of these drugs would have to be significantly reduced for them to lead to any savings in health care spending at all.”

A complex healthcare system

Jørgensen said he “voluntarily” agreed to speak to the committee about Ozempic and Wegovy's costs at the September hearing. His announcement came three days after Sanders threatened to hold a vote on subpoenaing the company's president, Doug Langa.

Jørgensen said he wanted to talk about the “complexity of the U.S. health care system, a system that we participate in but cannot change.”

“This requires a policy change,” he said, blaming insurance companies and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) for the high costs patients have to pay out-of-pocket for the drugs.

PBMs work with insurers to negotiate discounts or rebates with drug companies in exchange for including the drug in their coverage. But as PBMs become more consolidated and have more influence over which drugs patients will cover, experts worry they could drive up drug costs.

In July, the Federal Trade Commission released an interim report on how PBMs are driving up costs for patients.

“I know that some patients are poorly insured,” said Jørgensen. “And when you are poorly insured, it can be difficult to afford your medications. And for those patients, we have patient assistance programs that we try to help them with.”

Jørgensen also said there needs to be a “discussion about the value of these drugs” for patients in the US.

Cynthia Cox, vice president at KFF and director of the Affordable Care Act program, said that while the drugs can prevent and reduce a number of obesity-related diseases, they remain expensive and it is unclear how long people will need to take them to maintain their weight and improve their health.

“The widespread use of these drugs for weight loss is relatively new, so I'm not sure there is enough long-term data to fully weigh the costs and benefits,” Cox said.