Sept. 23, 2024
According to Becker’s Hospital Review…
On Sept. 24, Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen is slated to testify at a Senate committee hearing about the costs for Wegovy and Ozempic. The hearing comes after months of disagreements between Denmark-based Novo Nordisk and the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. The former says the United States’ complex pharmaceutical industry is causing high prices, while the latter says the drug maker is acting on “corporate greed.”
Wegovy is a weight loss medicine with a monthly list price of $1,349, and Ozempic is a Type 2 diabetes drug with a monthly list price of $969. After months of Sen. Bernie Sanders said major generic drugmakers told him their companies could sell the two blockbuster drugs for less than $100.
Here are recent updates on Ozempic, Wegovy and other GLP-1 medications:
Market Projections
The GLP-1 market is expected to be worth $200 billion by 2031. In a race to enter the lucrative market, pharmaceutical companies could launch up to 16 new weight loss drugs between 2026 and 2029, according to investment research company Morningstar.
Novo Nordisk, the maker of Ozempic and Wegovy, is already facing direct competition from Teva Pharmaceuticals and Sandoz. In June, Teva announced the launch of liraglutide, the first approved generic version of Novo Nordisk’s Victoza, a GLP-1 diabetes drug. And in September, Sandoz said it will sell semaglutide (Ozempic, Rybelsus and Wegovy) in 2030.
Daily pills
In a phase 1 trial, a Novo Nordisk experimental GLP-1 weight loss drug led to a 13.1% average reduction in body weight after 12 weeks. The drug candidate, amycretin, is designed as a daily pill — a divergence from all FDA approved GLP-1 medications, which are weekly injections.
Although amycretin and similar drugs are in early research stages, experts think oral presentations can assuage shortages and offer patients cheaper, more accessible options.