“We are very committed to making sure that Americans have access at an affordable price point for our medicines,” Jorgensen replied. Similarly, Wegovy’s list price is $1,349 in the US, but it costs $186 in Denmark, $140 in Germany and $92 in the United Kingdom, he said. Tuesday’s hearing boiled down to a familiar argument over who is responsible for the US’s higher prices: drug companies that set starting – or “list” – prices or pharmacy benefit managers, the middlemen that negotiate discounts on those list prices in exchange for favorable insurance coverage and access. Jorgensen said Novo Nordisk pays back about 75% of its medicine sales in rebates, discounts and fees, so the net price it receives is far lower than the list price. “The broad totality is that less patients have access to our medicines when we lowered the price,” Jorgensen told Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-New Hampshire, after she pressed him to reduce list prices.

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Persons: Sen, Bernie Sanders, ” Sanders, Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen, ” Jorgensen, “, Sanders, Jorgensen, it’s, Maggie Hassan, drugmakers, ”, PBMs, scot, ” Sen, Tim Kaine, Roger Marshall, Eli Lilly, Dr, Sanjay Gupta, Tammy Baldwin Organizations: CNN, Nordisk’s, US, Health, Education, Labor, Pensions, Yale, Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic, Novo Nordisk, Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, Nordisk, Novo Nordisk’s, Federal Trade Commission, CVS, Cigna’s, Republican, Wegovy’s, CNN Health, Medicare, Services Locations: United States, Danish, America, Canada, Denmark, Germany, United Kingdom, New Hampshire, Big, Virginia, Kansas, Novo, Wisconsin