With a joint article, the US President, Joe Biden, and left-wing Senator Bernie Sanders are calling on pharmaceutical companies – Denmark’s Novo Nordisk and the United States’ Eli Lilly – to lower the prices of their anti-cancer drugs. obesitywho are bearers of hope for millions of patients.
“These drugs could be game-changers for people around the world struggling with type 2 diabetes and obesity,” the two men wrote in USA Today. “However, they won’t be helpful for the millions of patients who can’t afford them.”
Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders have been feuding for a long time to reduce high drug prices in the US and the Democratic president has included this issue on his campaign agenda ahead of the November presidential election.
Medication Ozempico It is Wegovy from Novo Nordisk, which use the same molecule (semaglutide) and are approved respectively against type 2 diabetes and obesity, present very good results.
Eli Lilly, in turn, markets the drugs Mounjaro (antidiabetes) and Zepbound (antiobesity), as they are called in the US, which use a molecule called tirzepatide.
All of these drugs, given by injection, belong to a new class that mimics a gut hormone (GLP-1) and have quickly become popular because they can lead to greater weight loss than other treatments.
“Extremely high” amounts
But Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly are charging “extremely high” amounts, write Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders.
They give the example of Mounjaro, which costs nearly $1,100 a month, and cite a study showing that such drugs can be produced for less than $5 a month and still be profitable. In 2023, Novo Nordisk made more than $12 billion in profits, they note.
They also sound the alarm: Tens of millions of Americans suffer from type 2 diabetes or obesity and “if the prices of these drugs are not significantly reduced, they risk bankrupting the American health care system,” the two politicians write.
Currently, these medicines are not always covered by health insurance, which represents an access problem that patient organizations have difficulty solving.
Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden also note the differences in prices Americans pay compared to other countries.
“If Novo Nordisk and other pharmaceutical companies refuse to significantly reduce the price of prescription drugs in our country and end their greed, we will do everything in our power to stop it,” they conclude.
Shares in both companies fell more than 3% on Tuesday morning on the New York Stock Exchange, where the Danish group is listed.
Sources: AMPE, AFP