Novo Nordisk's diabetes drug Ozempic is sold in Canada for $155 in the United States. Novo Nordisk charges US $969. Lugovi. Novo Nordisk weight loss drug is even more expensive in the US. The list [00:00:20] price for Bogovi is $1,349 a month. Those charts were the focus of a recent Senate committee hearing, in which Novo Nordisk CEO Lars [00:00:35] Furugard Jorgensen was repeatedly asked by both Republicans and Democrats why the costs of these drugs, like Wegovy and Ozempic, cost so much more for Americans as opposed to people in other countries, right? [00:00:52] Obviously, the cost of pharmaceutical drugs tends to be much higher here in the United States, and I am super amused at United States senators asking these questions as if they are not responsible for literally aiding and abetting Big Pharma in doing this, [00:01:07] they haven't passed regulations to prevent it from happening. A lot of them are paid off and bribed by Big Pharma. Now, Bernie Sanders is not one of those politicians. He's been one of the most principled senators in this country and remains true to his principles and his values, and I value him for doing that. [00:01:25] And I think that this hearing is a roundabout way of basically doing something in lieu of legislation, because it's really hard to pass legislation that would actually rein in Big Pharma and its greed. Now, Bernie Sanders was the first to ask Jorgensen the question [00:01:44] of why it is that Americans are being price gouged for these drugs here versus what people are paying in other countries. Let's watch. Please tell me why you think it is appropriate to charge Americans nine times more [00:01:59] for the same exact product that you sell In Germany today. 80% of all Americans with insurance have access to these medicines at $25 or less for a month's supply. So so it's a price point that the pharmacy counter we have to talk about. [00:02:17] Let me just interrupt you, if I might. Okay. You're correct that many people pay $25 a month for ozempic, but what you're forgetting to mention is that many of those people are paying outrageously high prices for the insurance that covers ozempic and other drugs. [00:02:36] So simply, this is a pass through to the insurance companies. So, John, that riled you up a little bit. So what were your thoughts on that exchange? Well, I. Mean, one of the reasons I was riled up is, I guess, ignorance, who is paying $25 a month for it? [00:02:51] I mean, are they talking about people taking it specifically for diabetes or are they talking about for weight loss? Well, maybe maybe this. Is this is the outcome of a super complicated private health care model, where it depends on what kind of coverage you have, [00:03:08] what your health insurance company is willing to cover in terms of pharmaceutical drugs. What is your co-pay for pharmaceutical drugs? I mean, everyone pays different things depending on whether they're insured and what kind of insurance they have. Yeah. And related to that, Bernie Sanders whole question was absolutely perfect. [00:03:24] Like the idea. Well, no, they only pay 25. Oh they pay 25. What is being paid is $967. That's exactly right. And they're not immediately paying it right then, but they're paying for it in the end. Whereas in these other markets it never costs $1,000. [00:03:40] It's not like it's not divvied up in a different way. It's insane that they're overcharging in that way. And of course, the CEO is going to answer in that particular way. He's got his talking point or whatever, because he can't be honest, which is we charge you more because your government allows us to. That's that literally that would be the whole hearing, your government, all [00:03:57] of you guys, as you're saying, all of you. I wish she said it. I mean, of course, the CEO of pharmaceutical company is companies not going to say that because he enjoys that system, he benefits from that system. Yeah, but everyone in that room, including the senators, know that that's the truth. [00:04:16] And I think that's part of the reason. And Bernie knows that that's the case. Hey, don't scroll away. Come back, come back. Because before the video continues, we just want to urge you to lend your support to TYT. You power our honest reporting. You do it at t t.com/team and we love you for it. [00:04:34] Bernie is correct on this issue, and I'm trying to not get frustrated over the fact that he is doing this hearing. Instead of calling out his beloved colleagues for constantly serving as obstacles in passing legislation that would prevent pharmaceutical companies [00:04:51] from price gouging Americans. But he might think this is a roundabout way of applying pressure on pharmaceutical companies to do the right thing. I mean, he did succeed with Amazon, remember, he was constantly calling on calling out Amazon for the low wages they were paying their workers. [00:05:10] And then Amazon decided to increase their wage, you know, their entry wage to $15 an hour and Disney and Disney. So so it has worked in the past. And so I commend Bernie Sanders. I think that's what he's trying to do here. But I'm also frustrated because it's a dog and pony show. [00:05:26] Right. You have all of these senators in this committee asking questions as if they don't know that they are the problem. Yeah, yeah. I think, as you say, it could be intended to put pressure on the pharmaceutical companies that maybe could work. I think what it would be better designed to do is to raise the issue, like how many [00:05:46] Americans know that it costs nine times more than it does in Germany or whatever? I don't I don't know how many actually know that. But maybe coming out of this, it'll be on the news, people will be talking about it, and some Americans will be like, wait, why the hell are we paying so much more money? I mean, hopefully Americans have gotten wise to the fact that the vast majority of pharmaceutical medications are so much more expensive here. [00:06:03] But in this one in particular, because the gap is so big and because such a significant portion of the population either is already on it, or in the next few years will want to be on it. This is the most important one to make this issue on, and hopefully it's part of a conversation to get the government involved in regulating [00:06:20] these particular, these particular drugs. The government will do nothing. But let's hear some more. - I mean, we. - Eventually got insulin. Eventually they did something about limiting the cost. This could be a similar thing. I mean, it's even kind of a similar medicine. [00:06:35] There's a lot of medicines that people need out there. Yeah, but I think this is just in terms of like sheer quantity of cost per dose and with the quantity of people that are going to need it. If there was like one that is going to make the most financial difference, I think it's probably this. So let's go to the next clip, because here Sanders basically slaps [00:06:53] down a second excuse from the CEO. Let's watch. Mr. Jorgensen, you have told this committee that you are concerned that if you substantially lowered the list prices of ascent in the United States. [00:07:09] PBMs may take these drugs off of their formularies and deny access to patients who need these drugs. I think he used insulin as an example of that. However, I have received commitments in writing from the major PBMs that if [00:07:26] Novo Nordisk lowered its list price, they would not limit access to Ozempic and would Govi and would not take these drugs off of their formularies. Given this fact, will you commit today that Novo Nordisk [00:07:42] will substantially reduce the list price of these drugs in the United States? That's new information for me. Anything that will help patients get access to affordable medicine will be happy to look into. Are you prepared to have Novo Nordisk sit down with the PBMs, [00:07:59] who have made that commitment to me, that they will not take your products off of the formulary, sit in a room with us and work on an agreement. I'll be happy to. As I said, do anything that helps patients. Oh, yeah. I'm sure. I'm sure you're real happy. That's the face of happiness right there. [00:08:17] Right. No. I love. Look, Bernie Sanders did some work prior to this hearing taking place, and so he crossed all his t's, dotted all his eyes, and ensured that there was no way for this CEO to, like, wiggle out of accountability here and an effort to actually lower the prices [00:08:36] for the patients who need this drug. And look, I know that Ozempic and Wegovy and all those drugs have kind of the semaglutide drugs have been in the media because of people using it off label to lose weight. But remember, the original purpose for it is diabetes. Like to treat diabetes. [00:08:52] And so there are a lot of people who rely on this medication and are not just simply using it to lose weight. No offense to anyone who is using it to lose weight. I mean, there are benefits to doing that as well. But you know, I don't want anyone to think that this is just about like protecting celebrities who are, like, misusing this drug to be skinny. [00:09:10] - Okay, they'll. - Be fine if it costs $967 a dose. Exactly. Yeah. And by the way, like, again, I know that it never really seems to matter if something should have, like, bipartisan universal appeal as an issue because Americans can broadly agree on stuff. [00:09:25] And that doesn't mean the government is going to do anything about it. But like, I think there's probably a lot of Republicans that would like to get on this medication or already are. I think probably a lot of them actually. And so I don't know. Isn't it nice to have one person in government who's trying to do something [00:09:40] about the affordability of it? It ain't Matt Gaetz, as far as I can tell. It's not Marjorie Greene or Mitch McConnell, it's Bernie Sanders, the guy that you were told to fear. He's a commie. He's a radical. Yeah, but he's also trying to not let you be screwed over to take the medication that you desperately need. [00:09:56] So New Mexico Senator Ben Ray Lujan also called out Jorgensen for his company's opposition to Medicare, being able to negotiate drug prices for some drugs. Obviously, that was the outcome of one of Biden's bills. [00:10:13] He was supposed to allow Medicare to negotiate the prices of all drugs in order to keep Medicare costs low. But of course, that got watered down to just ten drugs. We've done extensive coverage on that. But it turns out that Jorgensen, apparently not a big fan of Medicare, [00:10:30] being able to negotiate drug prices. Wow, what a shocker. Let's watch. Medicare can finally negotiate the price that seniors pay for prescription drugs and Medicare. In your written testimony, you have acknowledged that Ozempic may be listed in the negotiations due to its high cost. [00:10:48] Despite these contentions that Medicare negotiations will resolve the price, Novo Nordisk has attempted to block the law when Medicare sought to negotiate the prices of insulins. When you mentioned in your written testimony that you expect ozempic, your diabetes product will be included in Medicare's list [00:11:05] of drugs for negotiations, yes or no? Should Ozempic be selected for negotiation. Will you commit to not initiating legal action to stop it? So, Senator, thank you for for bringing up that question. So we share the objective of, making products accessible [00:11:26] and affordable for patients. No doubt about that. On the IRA, negotiation, we have had some concerns that if if it's a if it's a real negotiation, I support that. [00:11:42] But if it's a price setting, I think it will have unintended negative consequences, to access to, to patients for, for innovation. Yeah. That's a lie. What he just said there is a lie. [00:11:58] He never had any fear of our federal government doing price fixing on any pharmaceutical drugs. From the very beginning, the whole point of that provision in one of Biden's bills was to allow for our Medicare system to simply negotiate for lower prices. [00:12:18] Negotiate. You know, something that we're supposed to be able to do in a free market, something that for some reason, a government funded program like Medicare is unable to do. That is not price fixing. Price fixing is the government coming in and saying, hey, Novo Nordisk, you're not allowed to charge more than $10 per dose of this drug. [00:12:39] That's not what the government's doing. They just don't want anyone or any government agency to have the capacity or ability to negotiate for lower drug prices. I mean I would say there is price fixing going on. It's just that the government doesn't get to do it. [00:12:55] The company does. Well, it's a good point. If you cannot negotiate then the company fixes the price. Well, our government aids and abets it by refusing to pass any regulations. So again, just to reiterate, not every senator who's part of this committee engages in aiding and abetting the pharmaceutical companies, [00:13:13] but a lot of them do. And so let's move on to them. Okay. Because there were, in fact, some senators who felt the need to utilize this hearing to defend pharmaceutical companies and their ability to charge whatever the hell they please. [00:13:29] So let's see what Republicans Roger Marshall and Mitt Romney contributed to the hearing. Novo Nordisk is not the villain in this story. Novo Nordisk is not the villain in this story. They're a hero. You know, I came to Congress to save Medicare. [00:13:47] The people of Kansas sent me here to save Medicare. I cannot save Medicare without a miracle drug for Alzheimer's. We're spending, I think, way over $200 billion on Alzheimer's disease. So if we thwart the innovation that you're that this type of company does, [00:14:04] it tells people to stop researching drugs that are going to solve Alzheimer's. Sometimes we live in a fantasyland, which is we want you to invest and the industry generally to invest massive amounts of money. But then we want you to keep the prices low like that. [00:14:20] That's fantasy land. That's not real. That's not reality. You you, under our system, are able to charge whatever you believe the market will bear and get as big a profit as you can possibly get. I presume that's the the the you have taken. You have. You're a fiduciary for your shareholders. You're trying to maximize your profit. [00:14:39] Is that right? That's wonderful. Thank you. So look, to be fair to Mitt Romney, he did ask over and over again throughout the hearing, like, why are you charging Americans so much more than what consumers are paying in other countries? He already provided the answer. [00:14:54] - I mean, because the. - Market will bear it, apparently. - Yeah. - Well, exactly. And that's the most important thing, because what we're talking about here is a stuffed animal. It's not necessary. Nobody needs any of this. And so if you can't afford it, it's fine. Oh, wait. It's medicine. Oh, wait, we should probably get involved because people are literally dying for [00:15:10] lack of access to this and like the idea, So okay, it costs $1,000 here, roughly. They can't only charge 800 or else they'll get no profit. So what the hell is going on in Germany? Are they losing $600 a dose on it? No, clearly they can profit at $100 a dose. [00:15:29] They already have proven that across the world. They're just nine times over profiting here. Why should we get screwed worse than any other country in the world? They're laughing at us all around the world because we'll pay so much for ozempic. We don't even have a country. [00:15:44] If you have to pay this much for ozempic, make American prices lower again. Yeah, look, they're doing. It. Because our politicians have been bribed to allow them to do it. And so we looked into the campaign finance of members of the Senate committee. [00:16:02] So this is the Senate Committee on Health, education, Labor and Pensions. And so we look into how much pharmaceutical companies have funded these politicians. The website. Open secrets ranks the top 20 industries that candidates have taken money from [00:16:19] over the course of their career, and that includes donations from both individuals and from superPACs. Almost all of the 21 members of the committee have the pharmaceutical and health products industry in their top 20. Let's give you a little taste. [00:16:36] Let's give you some specific examples. All right. So, here are the five who have taken the most. You have Senator Bob Casey from Pennsylvania. He has taken almost $2 million from the pharmaceutical industry. Okay. There's more like five. Doses of ozempic. He's got it made. [00:16:53] Well, he's got that sweet, sweet government health insurance, so he'll be. He'll be all right. Senator Patty Murray, Democrat from Washington. This is a bipartisan affair, folks. Really uniting the country with the greed and the corruption. $1.6 million. [00:17:09] Senator Ed Markey, Democrat from Massachusetts. Oh, yeah, $654,407 less. I was a little more specific in noting how much he took for pharmaceutical companies. Senator Susan Collins, Republican from Maine. [00:17:25] More than half $1 million, $598,642. And finally, you have Senator Tim Kaine, Democrat from Virginia, $572,885. The pharmaceutical companies do it because our politicians allow them to. [00:17:42] Our politicians allow them to because they're bribed to do so. That is what the hearing should have been about. Again, Bernie Sanders is a good guy. He has been fighting for the right things. But call out your colleagues when it matters, because right here, right now, it matters. [00:17:59] Hey, thanks for watching the video. We really appreciate it, guys, and we appreciate it if you become members, because that allows us to be independent, honest, progressive, all the things that you don't get from corporate media and all of that is because of you guys. 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