Novo Nordisk offers diabetes drug Ozempic for less than half the price for cash-paying U.S. patients

Novo Nordisk connected Monday said it present offers cash-paying U.S. patients its blockbuster diabetes attraction Ozempic for little than fractional its monthly database price, arsenic drugmakers look mounting governmental unit to little prices successful the country.

Patients tin wage $499 successful currency per period for 3 dose sizes of Ozempic. They tin get the terms done platforms including the drug's authoritative website, Novo Nordisk's diligent assistance programme and the company's precocious launched direct-to-consumer online pharmacy, the second of which besides ships the injection straight to patients' homes. 

Drug savings institution GoodRx volition besides connection Ozempic and its value nonaccomplishment counterpart Wegovy for $499 per month, making the discounts disposable astatine much than 70,000 pharmacies nationwide, according to a Novo Nordisk release.

Novo Nordisk's cash-pay offering volition grow entree to eligible Type 2 diabetes patients who don't person security sum for the play injection. In March, the institution began to connection Wegovy for fractional its database terms to cash-paying Americans. 

Ozempic's database terms earlier security and different rebates is astir $1,350 per month, and has been a predominant people of governmental and nationalist blowback successful caller years. The caller connection comes aft President Donald Trump successful July sent abstracted letters to Novo Nordisk and 16 different drugmakers, calling connected them to instrumentality steps to little medicine prices successful the U.S. Among different suggested actions, helium urged them to follow models that merchantability medicines straight to consumers oregon businesses. 

The efforts purpose to marque Ozempic and Wegovy disposable to much people, portion besides ensuring that patients usage the branded medicine alternatively of cheaper compounded copycats. Those drugs exploded successful popularity during a now-resolved U.S. shortage of Novo Nordisk's semaglutide, the progressive constituent successful some drugs.

While Ozempic "is good covered successful the US, let's not hide that determination are immoderate patients who wage out-of-pocket for this captious medicine," Dave Moore, enforcement vice president of U.S. operations and planetary concern improvement astatine Novo Nordisk, said successful the release. "We judge that if adjacent a azygous diligent feels the request to crook to perchance unsafe and unapproved knockoff alternatives, that's 1 excessively many."

Eli Lilly has likewise moved to slash the terms of its fashionable obesity and diabetes drugs for cash-paying patients. The 2 companies are warring to predominate the marketplace for alleged GLP-1s, which mimic definite gut hormones to suppress appetite and modulate humor sugar.