Biden calls for lower prices of Ozempic, similar drugs [Video]

US President Joe Biden on Tuesday called on pharmaceutical giants Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly to lower prices for diabetes and weight loss drugs such as Ozempic, saying firms must stop “ripping off the American people.”

In an article written with Senator Bernie Sanders, Biden said US patients pay several times more than in Canada, Germany and Denmark for Nordisk’s diabetes drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, which can also be used for weight loss.

One-month supply of Ozempic in the United States last year was $936, compared to $169 in Canada and $103 in Germany, according to one study.

Eli Lilly was also charging “unconscionably high prices” for Mounjaro, a drug similar to Ozempic.

“Why should people in Burlington, Vermont, pay so much more than people in Copenhagen or Berlin for the same drug?” wrote Biden and Sanders, who chairs the Senate healthcare committee.

Such “price gouging” makes the drugs unaffordable …