WASHINGTON — Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen will testify earlier than the Senate after Sen. Bernie Sanders threatened to subpoena the corporate over its pricing of the favored diabetes drug Ozempic and the weight problems drug Wegovy, the Senate well being committee introduced Friday.
The settlement is a finale to a farcical public back-and-forth over obvious difficulties between the Senate well being committee and Novo in scheduling a listening to. Sanders’ group claimed that Novo was uncooperative along with his requests, however the firm stated they’d instructed the senator’s group that the corporate was prepared to testify.
Jørgensen’s look is a pivot for the panel, as Sanders (I-Vt.) had initially scheduled a vote to subpoena the chief of Novo’s U.S. division, Doug Langa, as a substitute. Sanders stated that the scheduled subpoena vote, which even Democratic senators wouldn’t firmly decide to supporting, has been canceled.
The listening to received’t be occurring till “early September,” the committee stated, regardless of beforehand demanding that Novo seem at a listening to in July.
“The Committee appears ahead to Mr. Jørgensen explaining why People are paying as much as ten or 15 instances extra for these medicines than folks in different nations,” Sanders stated in a written assertion.
“As a part of Novo Nordisk’s continued efforts to cooperate with the Chairman, our CEO reaffirmed our place,” the corporate stated in a press release. “He and Chairman Sanders had a productive name and agreed to discover a mutually acceptable date for a listening to. We look ahead to discussing options that guarantee entry and affordability for all sufferers throughout the complicated U.S. healthcare system.”
Jørgensen testified concerning the firm’s insulin pricing methods final yr.
Novo’s capitulation to a listening to is the newest success for Sanders’ tactic of threatening to difficulty subpoenas to power pharmaceutical firm executives to seem at hearings. He used the identical playbook on Merck and Johnson & Johnson earlier this yr.
Within the face of Sanders’ investigation, Novo has defended the worth of Ozempic and Wegovy, saying that they’ll stop continual circumstances like coronary heart illness sooner or later, and so their full worth hasn’t but been realized. Executives have additionally stated that web costs, that are what Novo truly makes from the medication after rebates and reductions, have been coming down.
The listing worth of Ozempic is nearly $1,000 a month within the U.S., whereas it prices about $100 in nations like Germany and the U.Okay., based on an evaluation from the nonprofit KFF.
