Americans are paying more than $900 a month for popular weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, but drugmakers want to sell generic versions of the drugs for less than $100.
That is according to Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who held a roundtable event on Tuesday where he said drugmakers have told him they are prepared to sell generic versions of weight loss drugs containing semaglutide, the same active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy.
"They have studied the matter and they tell me that they can sell a generic version of Ozempic, the exact same drug that Novo Nordisk is manufacturing, to Americans for less than $100 per month," Sanders said.
Novo Nordisk is charging Americans up to 15 times more than in Canada, Japan or Europe, according to nonprofit Public Citizen.
If Medicare fully covered Ozempic and Wegovy at their current retail price, they would send the system into bankruptcy and double premiums, Sanders said.
In 2022, Medicare Part D’s gross spending on Ozempic was $4.628 billion for around 780,000 beneficiaries, which is roughly $6,000 per enrollee, according to Public Citizen.
Why isn't there generic Ozempic?
Novo Nordisk holds patent rights to its weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, which are among the only three FDA-approved semaglutide drugs in the U.S., meaning that generic versions can't come out until 2031 or 2032.
But the federal government has the authority to change that, which public health advocates are urging since it could reduce strain on the medical system from obesity and diabetes.
Under current law, the federal government can contract with drugmakers to manufacture generic drugs for Medicare, Medicaid and other government programs.
“All we need to make Ozempic for $100 a reality is to overcome Novo’s patent monopoly, which the government has power to do any time under existing law," said Peter Maybarduk, Public Citizen's access to medicines program director.
In August, Public Citizen sent a petition U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra to set up contracts with drugmakers to produce generic Ozempic.