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’ workforce claimed that Novo was uncooperative together with his requests, however the firm stated they’d informed the senator’s workforce 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 seems ahead to Mr. Jørgensen explaining why Individuals are paying as much as ten or 15 occasions extra for these drugs than individuals in different international locations,” 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 an announcement. “He and Chairman Sanders had a productive name and agreed to discover a mutually acceptable date for a listening to. We stay up for discussing options that guarantee entry and affordability for all sufferers throughout the complicated U.S. healthcare system.”
Jørgensen testified in regards to the firm’s insulin pricing methods final yr.
Novo’s capitulation to a listening to is the most recent success for Sanders’ tactic of threatening to challenge subpoenas to power pharmaceutical firm executives to look 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 value 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 internet costs, that are what Novo truly makes from the medicine after rebates and reductions, have been coming down.
The record worth of Ozempic is nearly $1,000 a month within the U.S., whereas it prices about $100 in international locations like Germany and the U.Okay., in keeping with an evaluation from the nonprofit KFF.