Bernie Sanders urged Denmark to force its most valuable company, Novo Nordisk A/S, to lower its drug prices, in a letter submitted by the US senator to one of the Nordic country’s largest newspapers.
Sanders, who chairs the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, called on Danes to pressure Novo to “significantly reduce the outrageously high prices for Ozempic and Wegovy in the US and other parts of the world,” according to the letter, published by the Politiken newspaper on Monday.
Sanders has also called on Novo directly to lower its prices and has asked the drugmaker to reply to a series of questions on costs and manufacturing. The company is currently unable to produce enough of its Wegovy weight-loss treatment to meet demand, and people are also hording diabetes drug Ozempic, which includes the same active ingredient.
Sanders, who wrote in the Monday letter that he admires Denmark’s welfare system, said Novo charges roughly ten times more for Ozempic in the US compared with European countries. “Help the American people do something about the obesity and diabetes epidemic we are facing,” the senator said.
