The chief executive of the drugmaker Novo Nordisk, Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, is scheduled to face tough questions Tuesday on Capitol Hill about the high costs of the company’s widely popular weight-loss drugs.
Jørgensen will appear before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions during a livestreamed hearing Tuesday starting at 10 a.m. ET.
The head of the committee, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has been vocal about his frustrations over how much Novo Nordisk charges Americans for both Ozempic (used to treat type 2 diabetes) and Wegovy (approved for weight loss).
“In general, we pay by far the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. Same exact medicine sold in Canada, Europe is a fraction of what it is in the United States,” Sanders said in an interview Monday. “The result of that is that hundreds of thousands of people in this country who desperately need this product will not be able to afford it.”
It dives me crazy that influencers and instagram wannabes have declared Ozempic a weight loss drug. As a diabetic, Ozempic has been the most effective glucose controlling medication I have ever taken. It drives me crazy that people see it as an easy weight loss medication. I couldn’t get it for months because of this insanity.
Also FUCK pharmaceutical companies for this predatory pricing shit and fuck our government for allowing this to happen.
Technically speaking, Ozempic is a weight-loss drug. Both are semaglutide, with slight variations on dosing. It’s not FDA approved as a weight loss drug, but can be used off-label for it.
I whole heartedly agree about influencers peddling them as miracle prescriptions. It just takes more away from the already limited stock.
Ozempic and Wegovy are identical chemicals. Ozempic is the name it goes by for treatment of type 2 diabetes, Wegovy is the name it goes by for weight loss.
Trying not to be an ass, but of ALLLLLL the expensive prescription drugs out there, are weight loss drugs really where we need to be focusing our efforts on?
With the obesity epidemic in the US, yes.
An epidemic that is brought on by our lack of self-control and corporations’ greed for money, not genetics or disease
Greed is first, as the greed is why food labeling isn’t as clear as other countries because that would get in the way of profits. Then add in massive portions to get people in restaurant seats, rampant poverty due to policies that make food choice unaffordable for many, and the cultural glorification of excess and it becomes a less about self control and more about how hard it is to fight the cultural pressures that lead to obesity.
When those weight loss drugs are actually diabetes drugs that have been co-opted by the market in the same way graphics cards are now used for crypto and ai… yes.
Perfect. Now we’re gatekeeping diseases. It’s not like the obesity is one of the greatest killers of our generation. Co-OpTeD bY tHe MaRkEt !1
I don’t know why you’re being downvoted. I’ve seen this being peddled on social media and if you’re exploring these avenues simply to lose weight you’re lazy and should just exercise more / control your diet.
You can say that as much as you want, but it won’t stop the obesity epidemic. “Just put in the work” won’t save millions from heart disease due to poor diet. Of course everyone could just start eating better. But clearly that hasn’t and will not work, so anything that can be used to help people be healthier and save lives, should be.
if you’re exploring these avenues simply to lose weight you’re lazy
Fuck off. I guarantee you that every single person considering medication to control weight has tried exercise and diet.
Consider how many millions of Americans are obese, and the knock-on effects that has on a person’s health. I suspect that if these drugs were widely available and affordable it would probably save money and lives in the long term.
The obesity epidemic is from the food we shove down our faces, not genetics or disease. We aren’t getting fat due to some virus or bacteria. We are fat because of self control issues and corporations sell more food if they put more sugar/fat/salt in it. Yes, some people DO need a drug like this, but we all know that is NOT who is buying and using this.
I’m not going to go as far as blaming some corporation for my shitty life, but some nuance is in order. Some people are just more prone to certain types of addictions compared to others. In some cases, we KNOW for a fact it’s genetics. In others we can only suspect.
Personally, I’ve won the lottery nicotine-wise. I could smoke a cigarette one day and not have another for months or years. But put a good cheesecake in front of me and I’ll eat until I’m physically not able to continue.
Don’t let perfection be the enemy of the good
But these drugs target the self-control issues as well.
You aren’t wrong that our food is shit, and that also needs to be addressed, however these drugs are a very useful and effective means of addressing the obesity problem. You are wrong to be judging who you think needs these drugs and who doesn’t. If someone is obese and has been unable to control their weight for whatever reason, and these drugs work for them, then they need these drugs.
Wow. I’m not judging who needs this, I’m saying that these are not the drugs that need the cost to come down first. There are other medications that should be looked at, even other diabetes meds, to be lowered first. Not these that are being advertised as weight loss miracles. I’m not against these drugs, and I’m sure they help those that need it, and I’m not a doctor to decide that anyway. I’m just pointing out that the two listed medications are a weird choice to start with when it comes to lowering drug prices.
That’s just crabs in a bucket. There’s no reason we need to only look at one drug at a time, congress could make sweeping drug price reforms any time it wants. Fighting over which single thing to look at first only allows politicians to stall because “no one can decide on what to do.”
