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Ozempic, the blockbuster diabetes shot made by Novo Nordisk A/S, is “very likely” to be one of the next drugs to have its price slashed in bargaining with the US government, a company executive said.
“It is very likely that Ozempic will be part of negotiations in the coming round, and we’re ready for that,” Ulrich Otte, senior vice president of finance & operations for Novo Nordisk, said Tuesday at Cantor Global Healthcare Conference in New York.
Novo’s American depositary receipts fell as much as 3.7 percent before paring their decline.
The ability to negotiate drug prices is part of a sweeping set of policies set forth in President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. The law allows the US government to haggle over drug prices, as many other nations around the world already do.
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The US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will announce the next set of 15 retail prescription drugs selected for negotiation by February 1, 2025, according to KFF. CMS will announce maximum fair prices for these drugs by November 30, 2025, with negotiated prices available on January 1, 2027.
Ozempic has a list price of $968.52 a month in the US. It’s covered by most Medicare plans for patients with type 2 diabetes to manage blood sugar levels.
Health-care analysts have said they expected Ozempic to be among the next round of drugs to face price cuts.
By Madison Muller and Gerry Smith
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Americans paid 10 times more for Ozempic than patients in the United Kingdom in 2023. That wild discrepancy has captured the attention of one of the drug industry’s loudest critics, the US senator Bernie Sanders.
