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'Corporate Greed': Biden, Sanders Tell Big Pharma to Stop 'Ripping Off' Americans
Past administrations "have been intimidated and deterred from challenging Big Pharma's monopoly power," an expert said. "Today, however, President Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders call Big Pharma's bullying bluff."
Jul 02, 2024
President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders on Tuesday called for prescription drug companies to lower prices and stop "ripping off" Americans.
The message from Biden and Sanders (I-Vt.) came in a joint op-ed in USA Today in which they laid out the reforms they've already pushed through, called out two pharmaceutical companies in particular for the "unconscionably" high prices they charge to Americans, and vowed to take governmental action to end the "corporate greed."
"There is no rational reason why Americans, for decades, have been forced to pay, by far, the highest prices in the world for the prescription drugs they need," Biden and Sanders wrote. "There is no rational reason why, for decades, 1 out of 4 Americans have been unable to afford the medicine their doctors prescribe.
"And it is most certainly not Americans' patriotic duty to pay high drug prices at home so others abroad can enjoy the fair prices that every American is entitled to," they added.
Consumer rights groups celebrated the strong position that the president and the senator took.
"For decades, presidential administrations on a bipartisan basis have been intimidated and deterred from challenging Big Pharma's monopoly power," Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen, an advocacy group, said in a statement. "Today, however, President Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders call Big Pharma's bullying bluff."
Pharmaceutical companies can make whatever excuses they want for their sky-high drug prices — we know it’s bullshit. And Biden and Bernie just called them on it.
If Big Pharma won’t quell its own greed, it’s up to the government to do it for them.https://t.co/YiodsDIoQI
— Public Citizen (@Public_Citizen) July 2, 2024
Some progress has been made on prescription drug prices in the last four years, Biden and Sanders noted in their op-ed.
The Inflation Reduction Act, which they helped enact, established a price ceiling of $35 per month for insulin for senior citizens. And, starting in 2025, no senior citizen will have to pay more than $2,000 in prescription drug prices in a given year—a reform Biden and Sanders said they'd like to see apply to all Americans. Medicare can now also negotiate with pharmaceutical companies to lower prices, as other countries do.
Yet the problem of high drug prices remains, and Sanders has made solving it a priority, focusing on it as chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee. Last year, he wrote an op-ed in Fox News, calling the opposition to pharmaceutical company profiteering an issue on which Americans of all political stripes "could not be more united." He also released a report showing that medications made using publicly funded research were then being priced exorbitantly by private firms.
The Vermont Independent has also repeatedly grilled pharmaceutical executives in hearings over the last two years, but they have generally not committed to lowering prices, though some companies did institute caps on out-of-pocket expenses on inhalers.
In April, Sanders and Biden teamed up for an event at the White House to discuss the need to lower prescription drug prices.
"I'm proud that my administration is taking on Big Pharma in the most significant ways ever," Biden said at the event. "And I wouldn't have done it without Bernie... Bernie was the one who was leading the way for decades."
Tuesday's op-ed marks the continuation of their partnership on the issue, with Biden effectively endorsing Sanders' drug pricing agenda, particularly for obesity and diabetes medications. HELP launched an investigation into Novo Nordisk's pricing of Ozempic and Wegovy in April, and the Danish multinational was the primary example of wrongdoing chosen by Biden and Sanders in their op-ed.
Ozempic and Wegovy are up to six times more expensive in the U.S. than in peer countries, Biden and Sanders wrote.
"In 2023, for example, Novo Nordisk made over $12 billion in profits, in part by charging Americans over $1,000 a month for a prescription drug that can be profitably manufactured for less than $5. That is not making a reasonable return on investment. That is price gouging. That is corporate greed."
Sanders recently succeeded in pressuring Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen to agree to testify in front of HELP in September.
Biden and Sanders noted that even just within obesity and diabetes care, the problem goes beyond Novo Nordisk: Eli Lilly's Mounjaro, a comparable weight-loss drug, is also overpriced. They argued that if the prices of such drugs are not lowered, they could bankrupt the U.S. healthcare system.
Biden then repeated the message through his own channels.
"If Big Pharma refuses to lower prescription drug prices and end their greed, we will do everything within our power to end it for them," Biden wrote on social media following the publication of the op-ed. "Bernie Sanders and I will not rest until every American can afford the prescriptions they need to lead healthy, happy, and productive lives."
Though the timing may be incidental, Biden's cooperation with Sanders, a leading progressive, comes during a week in which he needs to rally his base—a task Sanders is known to excel at. Biden faces widespread pressure to step aside from the presidential race following a subpar debate performance on Thursday night.
While progressives have been sharply critical of Biden on a range of issues, it's not clear whether his potential replacements at the top of the Democratic ticket would be so willing to team up with Sanders and call out corporate greed.
"Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden just co-authored a piece laying into big pharmaceutical companies for overcharging Americans on obesity drugs," Matt Stoller, a progressive commentator and research director of the American Economic Liberties Project, wrote on social media. "I realize Biden is senile, but would his replacements do anything like this? Most wouldn't."
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Sanders Says Novo Nordisk CEO to Testify About 'Outrageously High' Drug Prices
"The committee looks forward to Mr. Jørgensen answering a very simple question: Why does he think it's acceptable to charge Americans up to 10 or 15 times more for Ozempic and Wegovy than people in Europe and other major countries?" said Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Jun 24, 2024
In his latest move aimed at holding the Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk accountable for the high price of its weight loss medications, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Monday announced the CEO of the company will soon testify before the Senate committee he chairs.
Lars Jørgensen is scheduled to appear before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee on September 24 to discuss what Sanders called "the outrageously high prices that Novo Nordisk charges Americans for their blockbuster drugs, Ozempic and Wegovy."
As Common Dreams reported last month, Americans pay hundreds of dollars more for the two drugs, which treat Type 2 Diabetes and weight management, than people in other wealthy countries with government-funded healthcare programs.
"Novo Nordisk currently charges Americans with Type 2 diabetes $969 a month for Ozempic, while this same exact drug can be purchased for just $155 in Canada, $122 in Denmark, and just $59 in Germany," said Sanders (I-Vt.). "Incredibly, Novo Nordisk also charges Americans with obesity $1,349 a month for Wegovy, while this same exact product can be purchased for just $186 in Denmark, $140 in Germany, and $92 in the United Kingdom."
"Wegovy is a 'game changer' weight loss drug. That doesn't mean much to the millions of people who can't afford it."
"The committee looks forward to Mr. Jørgensen answering a very simple question: Why does he think it's acceptable to charge Americans up to 10 or 15 times more for Ozempic and Wegovy than people in Europe and other major countries?" said the senator.
Sanders had been planning to hold a vote on subpoenaing Jørgensen before he indicated he would be open to testifying before the committee earlier this month.
In April, the North Carolina state health plan, used by 20,000 teachers and other state employees, announced it would discontinue coverage for Wegovy and similar medications because the price "would require them to double insurance premiums."
Earlier this month, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, the state's largest insurer, also said it would end coverage of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) obesity drugs—a decision that could impact roughly 10,000 people in the state who use the medications.
"Wegovy is a 'game changer' weight loss drug," said Sanders at the time. "That doesn't mean much to the millions of people who can't afford it."
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Sanders Warns 'Unjustifiably High' Prices of Weight Loss Drugs Could Bankrupt US Health System
"There is no rational reason, other than greed, for Novo Nordisk to charge Americans struggling with obesity $1,349 for Wegovy when this exact same product can be purchased for just $186 in Denmark," said the senator.
May 15, 2024
Releasing the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee's findings on the prices of weight loss drugs in the United States, Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday ramped up pressure on a Danish pharmaceutical company to lower the "outrageously high" prices of Ozempic and Wegovy, warning that the current pricing could bankrupt the country's healthcare system.
As chairman of the Senate HELP Committee, Sanders (I-Vt.) is leading an investigation into Novo Nordisk's weight loss drug pricing, and the report published Wednesday is the result of modeling his staff completed to show how the medications' exorbitant prices could impact prescription drug pricing across the United States.
The committee found that if half of all U.S. adults with obesity took Wegovy and other diabetes drugs that have recently been approved for weight loss, it could cost $411 billion per year. In 2022, Americans spent $406 billion on all retail prescription drugs.
Medicare and Medicaid would spend an estimated $166 billion per year on the medications if half of the programs' patients used them, rivaling the $175 billion the programs spent on prescription drugs in 2022.
"Today's report makes it crystal clear: The outrageously high price of Wegovy and other weight loss drugs have the potential to bankrupt Medicare and our entire health care system," said Sanders.
The projected costs are a far cry from what patients in Denmark and other European countries would pay for the same drugs.
Americans currently pay $969 per month for Ozempic and $1,349 per month for Wegovy. While the two drugs have the same active ingredient, the former is typically used to treat Type 2 diabetes and the latter is for weight loss and management.
Ozempic costs just $155 in Canada, $71 in France and $59 in Germany. Danish patients pay just $186 per month for Wegovy, while the medication costs $137 in Germany and $92 in the U.K.
Sanders' report says that Novo Nordisk's prices are "especially egregious" considering the fact that the company could make a profit off manufacturing them for less than $5 per month.
"The unjustifiably high prices of these weight loss drugs could also cause a massive spike in prescription drug spending that could lead to an historic increase in premiums for Medicare and everyone who has health insurance," said the senator. "There is no rational reason, other than greed, for Novo Nordisk to charge Americans struggling with obesity $1,349 for Wegovy when this same exact product can be purchased for just $186 in Denmark."
The report cites the North Carolina state health plan's decision last month to end coverage for Wegovy and similar medications.
The plan administrators "estimated that continuing coverage for Wegovy at its current price would require them to double insurance premiums. Faced with impossible choices, the health plan eliminated coverage," reads the report.
The reason nearly 20,000 teachers and other state employees in North Carolina lost access to the drugs, the report emphasizes, "was not because there were not enough drugs to meet demand, but because Novo Nordisk refused to lower prices to make those drugs widely available."
Thirty-five state Medicaid programs do not cover the medications at all, the HELP Committee noted, due to the price.
"As important as these drugs are, they will not do any good for the millions of patients who cannot afford them," reads the report. "Further, if the prices for these products are not substantially reduced, they have the potential to bankrupt Medicare, Medicaid, and our entire healthcare system."
The committee found that if Novo Nordisk made the U.S. price of Wegovy equal to what Danish patients pay, the healthcare system could pay for new weight loss drugs for 100% of adults with obesity annually for less than what it costs to cover just 25% of those patients at the current drug prices.
The healthcare system would save up to $317 billion per year, according to the committee's modeling.
The report was released days after Sanders appealed to the Danish government in the pages of one of the country's largest newspapers, Politiken, calling on officials to force Novo Nordisk to lower U.S. prices.
"As many Danes may know, I have long admired the welfare system that has been built up in Denmark," wrote Sanders. "When I was a candidate for the presidency, I often pointed out that the United States could learn a lot from Denmark in terms of access to healthcare and education, as well as respect for the environment and workers' rights. There is a reason why Denmark is considered one of the happiest places on Earth in international surveys. The Danish people should be proud of what you have managed to achieve."
"So now I want to appeal to the people of Denmark and the charitable foundation that owns this hugely profitable company," he continued. "Help the American people do something about the epidemic of obesity and diabetes we are facing."
Pelle Dragsted, a member of Danish Parliament for the Red-Green Alliance and a democratic socialist, applauded Sanders' op-ed.
"Healthcare is a human right," said Dragsted on Monday. "Having an illness should never be the ruin of anyone. Our message to Novo Nordisk is clear: Choose basic decency and social responsibility over profit—lower your prices in the U.S."
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