Novo Nordisk is slashing the price of its blockbuster diabetes drug Ozempic for U.S. patients who self-pay or are uninsured.
The drug company announced Monday that patients with Type 2 diabetes can get a month’s supply of the medication for $499 — less than half of the list price of nearly $1,350 for those without health insurance. Patients with a prescription for Ozempic can get the diabetes treatment on Ozempic.com or through the NovoCare Pharmacy, the drugmaker’s direct-to-consumer online pharmacy which offers home delivery of prescriptions drugs for cash-paying customers.
Patients will also be able to get Ozempic for $499 through the drug discount platform GoodRx, which also offers Wegovy for $499 per month at more than 70,000 participating pharmacies nationwide.
“Improving access to our authentic FDA-approved treatments is central to our mission at Novo Nordisk,” said Novo Nordisk’s executive vice president Dave Moore in a statement. “While Ozempic is well covered in the U.S, let’s not forget that there are some patients who pay out-of-pocket for this vital medicine. We believe that if even a single patient feels the need to turn to potentially unsafe and unapproved knockoff alternatives, that’s one too many.”
The move comes amid mounting calls from patients and lawmakers alike — including President Donald Trump — for more affordable GLP-1 treatments. Trump sent letters in July to Novo Norsdisk and more than a dozen pharmaceutical companies, calling on them to lower drug prices — among other goals — by Sept. 29, CNBC reported. If companies refuse to comply, Trump threatened to “deploy every tool in our arsenal to protect American families from continued abusive drug pricing practices.”
Most private health insurers have limited coverage of the drugs to diabetes patients, who pay far less than the full list price for the treatment. But Medicare has been barred from covering them under a law that says the program cannot pay for weight-loss products. Coverage through Medicaid, meanwhile, has varied from state to state, with at least 14 states covering the cost of GLP-1 medications for obesity treatment for patients.
That’s meant the drugs — which can cost upwards of $1,000 monthly — have been largely unaffordable for many.
Researchers who found that obesity dipped for the first time in more than a decade suggested that weight loss drugs like Ozempic might play a role.
How does Ozempic and Wegovy work?
Ozempic, Wegovy and other weight-loss drugs, also called anti-obesity medications or GLP-1s, mimic the hormone known as glucagon-like peptide 1, which regulates appetites by communicating fullness between the gut and brain when people eat.
The hormones help regulate blood sugar by triggering the pancreas to release insulin, another hormone, and slowing the release of sugar from the liver. People who are overweight or have obesity can become insulin-resistant, which means the body doesn’t respond to insulin properly.
The obesity drugs lower blood sugar and slow down digestion, so people feel full longer. They also affect signals in the brain linked to feelings of fullness and satisfaction, tamping down appetite, food-related thoughts and cravings.
Because people feel full longer, they eat less and lose weight.
Ozempic was approved to treat diabetes in 2017, and skyrocketed in use after celebrities and ordinary people on TikTok reported that their doctors prescribed it “off label” for weight loss.
Wegovy, a higher dose version of the same medication, called semaglutide, was approved for weight loss for adults in 2021 and for children aged 12 and older in 2022.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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