NEWS: Chairman Sanders Announces HELP Committee Vote to Subpoena Novo Nordisk Inc. President

WASHINGTON, June 11 – At a time when the United States pays, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), announced today that the committee will, on Tuesday, June 18, vote to subpoena the President of Novo Nordisk Inc., Doug Langa, to provide testimony about why his company charges up to 10 to 15 times more for Ozempic and Wegovy in the U.S. compared to other countries.

On April 24, the HELP Committee launched an investigation into the outrageously high prices of Ozempic and Wegovy in the U.S., prescription drugs that millions of Americans struggling with diabetes and obesity desperately need.

To date, this investigation has found that:

• Novo Nordisk charges Americans with Type 2 diabetes $969 a month for Ozempic, while this same exact drug can be purchased for just $59 in Germany, $122 in Denmark, and $155 in Canada. (The net price for Ozempic in the U.S is about $600 – still substantially higher than other countries).
• Novo Nordisk charges Americans with obesity $1,349 a month for Wegovy, while this same exact product can be purchased for just $92 in the United Kingdom, $186 in Denmark, and $265 in Canada. (The net price for Wegovy in the U.S is about $809 – still substantially higher than other countries).
• If half of adults with obesity took Wegovy and the other new weight loss drugs, it could cost $411 billion per year – $5 billion more than what Americans spent on all prescription drugs at the pharmacy counter in 2022.  
• If half of all Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries who are obese took Wegovy and other weight loss drugs, Medicare and Medicaid could spend $166 billion per year – rivaling what the two federal health programs spent on all retail prescription drugs in 2022.

Chairman Sanders said: “The American people – Democrats, Republicans, and Independents – are sick and tired of paying, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. It is not acceptable to me or the American people that we continue to be ripped off by giant pharmaceutical companies who make huge profits every year while charging us outrageous prices. The HELP Committee has reached out time and time again to Novo Nordisk to request their voluntary attendance at a hearing to discuss why they are charging Americans up to 10 or 15 times more for the exact same product sold in other countries. Unfortunately, despite all of our efforts, they have repeatedly denied our requests. We look forward to their presence at a hearing on July 10th.”