Novo Nordisk announced Monday that US patients can now get a month\u2019s supply of Ozempic, the blockbuster diabetes drug, for $499, for those who pay for medications on their own and don\u2019t go through insurance.<\/p>\n
The move comes as President Donald Trump is pressuring drugmakers to lower drug costs, which have long been a major health care headache for Americans. He and lawmakers have called out popular but pricey GLP-1 drugs, which are used for diabetes and weight loss, noting they are much more expensive in the United States than in other countries.<\/p>\n
Trump has also been pushing pharmaceutical manufacturers to provide medications directly to consumers at a lower price, cutting out insurers and other players. Novo Nordisk is making Ozempic, which carries a list price of just under $1,000 per month, available at its NovoCare Pharmacy, which ships medications directly to cash-paying consumers.<\/p>\n
The drugmaker earlier this year launched the direct-to-consumer pharmacy, offering Wegovy, its in-demand weight loss drug, for $499 a month. Rival Eli Lilly has also slashed the price of its GLP-1 weight loss drug, Zepbound, for self-pay patients.<\/p>\n
The discounted Ozempic price is also available on other platforms, including Novo Nordisk\u2019s website and through a partnership with GoodRx, which offers discounts on prescriptions at many pharmacies. The offer is open to eligible patients with an Ozempic prescription, the drugmaker said.<\/p>\n
Insurers are more likely to cover Ozempic for those with diabetes than they are Wegovy, and Novo Nordisk offers discounts for those with coverage. However, Novo Nordisk is looking to broaden Ozempic\u2019s availability even further.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile Ozempic is well covered in the US, let\u2019s not forget that there are some patients who pay out-of-pocket for this vital medicine,\u201d Dave Moore, executive vice president of Novo Nordisk\u2019s US operations, said in a statement. \u201cWe believe that if even a single patient feels the need to turn to potentially unsafe and unapproved knockoff alternatives, that\u2019s one too many.\u201d<\/p>\n
The company noted in its second-quarter earnings call this month that compounding pharmacies, which are allowed to make versions of medications approved by the US Food and Drug Administration when drugs are in shortage, have affected the sales of its GLP-1 medications.<\/p>\n
The FDA removed Novo Nordisk\u2019s semaglutide-based drugs, Ozempic and Wegovy, along with Eli Lilly\u2019s tirzepatide-based drugs, Zepbound and Mounjaro, from the shortage list. Novo Nordisk, however, said compounded versions continue to be sold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Novo Nordisk announced Monday that US patients can now get a month\u2019s supply of Ozempic, the blockbuster diabetes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[64,63,1730,137,16885,490,4390,7716,60876,60877],"class_list":{"0":"post-79971","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-drugs","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-medicaid","13":"tag-medication","14":"tag-obesity","15":"tag-ozempic","16":"tag-wbrz","17":"tag-weightloss"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}