Senate HELP Committee hearing could get heated as Novo Nordisk CEO testifies

A Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pension hearing scheduled for Tuesday has all the makings of a showdown as Novo Nordisk (NVO) CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen is set to be the sole witness to testify about the drugmaker’s prices for the diabetes and weight loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy.

The committee is chaired by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a well-known critic of Big Pharma.

As a possible indication that the hearing, which starts at 10a ET, could get contentious, it has the title, “Why is Novo Nordisk Charging Americans with Diabetes and Obesity Outrageously High Prices for Ozempic and Wegovy?”

On Sept. 17, Sanders turned up the heat on Novo Nordisk when he said that executives with several major generic companies told him Ozempic could be sold for $100 per month with the Danish company still making a profit.

Ozempic, for type 2 diabetes, has a U.S. list price of $969 a month, while Wegovy, the weight loss medication, has a list price of $1349.

Jørgensen, however, is set to argue that Novo is not the problem, but drug middlemen, known as pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) are, according to his prepared remarks that were viewed by Bloomberg.

PBMs work with health insurers to manage drug benefits for members. PBMs are also finding themselves under scrutiny as evidenced by a Federal Trade Commission complaint filed Sept. 20 against the three largest ones — Optum Rx, Express Scripts, and Caremark Rx — that accuses them of artificially inflating the price on insulin drugs to pad their bottom lines.

“The ‘net’ price Novo Nordisk ultimately receives for the medicines it sells is far below the published ‘list’ price,” Jørgensen’s prepared statement reads.

Novo rival Eli Lilly (LLY) also markets its own highly popular GLP-1 medications for diabetes, Mounjaro and Zepbound. The former has a list price of $1069 while the latter’s is $1060.

In late August, however, Eli Lilly slashed the price of the two lowest dosage strengths of Zepbound by 50% if ordered through the telehealth platform LillyDirect, for a monthly cost of $399 and $549.