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When it comes to diabetes, the United States not only has the highest rate of all developed nations, we also charge people the highest rates to not die from it. For years, insulin manufacturers charged Americans outrageous prices simply because they could. Now, thankfully, those prices have gone down, with pharmaceutical companies agreeing to a $35 price cap after the Biden administration capped the cost for seniors on Medicare — but the price of insulin pumps is still pretty high (even, I have just learned, on AliExpress, which does not seem like a great place to get an insulin pump) and the cost of semaglutides like Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro are through the roof, running at about $1000 for a month’s supply.
It’s especially outrageous given the results of a study published on Wednesday in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) online network, in which researchers from Yale, King’s College, and Doctors Without Borders found that a month’s supply of the drugs could actually be manufactured for between 89 cents and $4.73.
The cost of the drugs are so high that many insurers are requiring patients try multiple other medications before they will cover it, despite the fact that it is supposed to be a first line treatment for Type 2 Diabetes. This is in part because demand for semaglutide has gone up, due to the fact that it also aids in weight loss.
Well, unless you are Tracy Morgan.
Senator Bernie Sanders, as chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, And Pensions (HELP) committee, responded to the news of the study with a statement demanding that Novo Nordisk lower the price of Ozempic and the drug Wegovy (which, on average, costs $1349 a month) to something reasonable and closer to what people in other countries are paying for it. For instance, in Germany, these drugs only cost $59 a month.
“As Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), I am calling on Novo Nordisk to lower the list price of Ozempic – and the related drug Wegovy – in America to no more than what they charge for this drug in Canada. The American people are sick and tired of paying, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs while the pharmaceutical industry enjoys huge profits,” Sanders said in a statement, adding, “Ozempic has the potential to be a game changer in the diabetes and obesity epidemics in America. But, if we do not substantially reduce the price of this drug, millions who need it will be unable to afford it. Further, this outrageously high price has the potential to bankrupt Medicare, the American people and our entire health care system.”
While Wegovy is primarily a weight-loss drug, the FDA also recently approved it for treating heart disease and reducing cardiovascular risk — which is why, last week, several Medicare health plans announced that they would cover it for that purpose or for those with a serious-enough weight issue. This is great news, especially because it means that private insurers will likely follow suit, but as Sanders notes, it’s not going to be that great unless the obscene cost of the drugs are lowered.
It would be one thing if we were simply talking about a drug that fancy rich people pretended to not go on in order to lose weight they don’t actually need to lose. Maybe. Personally I think overcharging that much for anything is pretty gross. But we are talking about a drug that can be lifesaving for people with diabetes, those with heart problems and, yes, those who have serious, health-problem causing weight issues that cannot be solved with diet and exercise, for reasons that are no one’s business but their own.
Social and political pressure caused these companies to lower the price of insulin, and caused other companies to lower the price of inhalers. This just goes to show you that we can, in fact, have nice things if we just keep loudly demanding them and annoying and guilting the absolute shit over those with the power to give them to us.
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