Sanders says generic drugmakers could sell Novo Nordisk Ozempic for less than $100

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) once again ramped up pressure on weight loss drugmakers, announcing that he received confirmation from CEOs of major generic drugmakers that Novo Nordisk’s (NVO) blockbuster diabetes medicine Ozempic can be sold profitably at $100 per month.

His remarks came on Tuesday ahead of next week’s Senate hearing with Novo Nordisk (NVO) CEO Lars Jørgensen on U.S. prices for the company’s popular diabetes/weight loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, which both contain the active ingredient semaglutide.

Sanders is a regular critic of Big Pharma. The former presidential hopeful penned an opinion column with President Biden on USA Today in July, calling Eli Lilly (LLY) and Novo (NVO), the makers of the GLP-1 class of weight loss drugs, as examples of Big Pharma “ripping off the American people.”

His claims for generic Ozempic signal a fresh blow against Novo (NVO), which sells Ozempic at a list price of $969 a month in the U.S. for patients with diabetes. “This same exact drug can be purchased for just $155 in Canada, $122 in Denmark, and just $59 in Germany,” Sanders added.

Sanders also noted that Novo’s weight loss drug Wegovy, which, like Ozempic, contains semaglutide but at different strengths, retails for $1349 a month in the U.S., far higher than in European nations.

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