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Diabetes News: Medicare to Negotiate Semaglutide Prices [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-01-22
The list price for Ozempic in the US is roughly $1,000/mo. (KFF), far more than in other countries. It is now on the list for Medicare’s second round of price negotiations along with other semaglutide medicines, both for diabetes and weight loss.
Medicare targets 15 more drugs for price negotiations — including Ozempic
The Biden administration, in its last full weekday in office, announced the next 15 drugs up for Medicare price negotiation. Blockbuster diabetes drug Ozempic is on the list. The list includes: Ozempic, Tradjenta, Janumet (type 2 diabetes)
Rybelsus (type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease)
Wegovy (obesity, cardiovascular disease)
Trelegy Ellipta, Breo Ellipta (asthma, COPD)
Xtandi (prostate cancer)
Pomalyst (Kaposi sarcoma, multiple myeloma)
Ibrance (breast cancer)
Ofev (some pulmonary fibrosis)
Linzess (some forms of chronic constipation and irritable bowel syndrome)
There will be an extended period of negotiation, mandated by the Inflation Reduction Act, before the new prices can go into effect in 2027. The first round of negotiated prices is scheduled to go into effect next year.
Those 10 lower prices – which ranged from a price cut of 79% for Type 2 diabetes drug Januvia to a 38% cut for cancer drug Imbruvica – will go into effect in January 2026. That means for Januvia the price Medicare would pay would go from $527 to $113 for a month's supply.
Cue screaming from the usual suspects who can’t stand saving all of those lives and limbs. Then, as usual, do more of it next year, and the next, and so on. This is law, duly passed by Congress and signed by President Biden, so it cannot be undone by Executive Order. Nor can this Congress, the 119th, get itself together to undo the IRA. It is far less functional, with far narrower partisan margins and more internal divisions, than the Congresses that tried to vote down the ACA for years.
The 15 new drugs combined with the 10 drugs in the first batch represent about a third of Medicare Part D spending on prescription drugs.
Here’s How Much More Ozempic Costs in the U.S. Compared to Other Countries
A month-long supply of Novo Nordisk’s diabetes drug Ozempic has an average list price of $936 in the U.S., reports KFF. This is more than five times higher than the next-highest list price — $169 in Japan. Other countries have even lower list prices for Ozempic — $93 in the U.K., $87 in Australia and $83 in France.
Many Web sites offer steep discounts on compounded semaglutide and on brand-name products. But beware.
CBS: Is your Ozempic pen fake? FDA investigating counterfeit weight loss drugs, trade group says
Speaking of diabetic medical bogosity, I am furious at CVS for selling a nonsensical neuropathy “treatment” consisting of frankincense and myrrh in a rubbing oil, and for selling it as a treatment for arthritis, too. The only thing that currently works on the neuropathy in my toes is exercise, specifically a hundred toe bounces at a time. I have seen full-body neuropathy up close and personal, and I’m not having it.
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