WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Senate well being panel mentioned on Tuesday it might vote this month on whether or not to subpoena Novo Nordisk (NYSE:) to reply questions on U.S. costs for weight reduction medicine Ozempic and Wegovy, that are far larger than these in different nations.
The Senate Committee on Well being, Training, Labor, and Pensions, which is investigating the medicine’ prices, mentioned in an announcement that at its June 18 assembly it’ll weigh a subpoena requiring renior Novo Nordisk Inc govt Doug Langa to testify at a July 10 listening to.
“The HELP Committee has reached out time and time once more to Novo Nordisk to request their voluntary attendance at a listening to to debate why they’re charging People as much as 10 or 15 occasions extra for the very same product bought in different nations,” mentioned Senator Bernie Sanders, who chairs the committee.
“Sadly, regardless of all of our efforts, they’ve repeatedly denied our requests. We sit up for their presence at a listening to on July tenth,” he mentioned within the assertion.
In April, Sanders despatched a letter to Langa in search of extra info on U.S. costs for the 2 medicine.
Novo responded with a Might letter blaming the U.S. well being system for the excessive costs. It mentioned it retains about 60% of the checklist value for the medicine after rebates and charges paid to middlemen.
A 2 milligram package deal of Ozempic carries an inventory value of $935.77 within the U.S., whereas Wegovy has an inventory value of $1,349.02 per package deal, in accordance with the drugmaker’s web site.