Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) is under mounting political pressure over the high U.S. prices of its blockbuster weight-loss drugs, Ozempic and Wegovy, as the race for the White House heats up. The pricing disparity between the U.S. and other international markets has drawn sharp criticism from lawmakers, putting the company in the political spotlight.
Ozempic, for example, costs around $969 per month in the U.S., while the same drug is available for as low as $71 in France. Wegovy, another Novo Nordisk drug, is priced at $1,349 in the U.S., versus only $92 in the U.K.
CEO Testifies Before Congress: A Focus On PBMs
On Tuesday, Novo Nordisk’s CEO, Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen, testified before U.S. lawmakers, addressing the significant price gap between the U.S. and international markets.
Jorgensen attributed much of the pricing issue to pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs)—the middlemen between pharmaceutical companies and insurers.
In an exclusive interview with Benzinga on Tuesday, Mauritz Pot, founder and CEO of Tema ETFs, which actively manages the Tema GLP-1, Obesity & Cardiometabolic ETF (NYSE:HRTS), offered his perspective on what this political showdown ...
