Novo halves Ozempic price to $499 a month for those paying cash

 Novo Nordisk A/S is slashing the cost of Ozempic for cash-paying patients after the diabetes shot became the poster child for high US drug prices.

Patients can now get Ozempic for $499 a month - about half of its US list price - through Novo’s cash-pay pharmacy NovoCare, the company said in a statement Monday. It’s also partnering with GoodRx Holdings Inc. to offer Ozempic and its sister weight-loss drug Wegovy for the same price at pharmacies across the US.

President Donald Trump has been putting pressure on pharmaceutical companies to lower prices, including sending letters to drugmakers like Novo demanding action. The Biden administration previously attempted to get Novo to lower the price of Ozempic, the Danish company’s best-selling drug, without success.

Novo said the offer is unrelated to its discussions with the US government. It comes less than a week after weight-loss rival Eli Lilly & Co. made its own adjustment, raising the list price for its obesity shot in the UK by as much as 170%. Still, it’s not yet clear how much difference either measure will make when it comes to variations in what patients actually pay across countries.

Novo’s shares gained as much as 7.8% to a session high following the announcement. The stock was already advancing on Monday after Wegovy received Food and Drug Administration approval to treat a serious form of liver disease.

The news also sent GoodRx’s stock up 39%, its biggest intraday jump since September 2020. GoodRx Chief Executive Officer Wendy Barnes said the partnership with Novo makes it much easier for patients to get a more affordable version of the drugs.

“We are the number one branded marketplace to seek cash pricing on brands and generics, so for that reason we already have the millions of consumers searching for these types of products,” Barnes said in an interview with Bloomberg TV. “This is where they are looking for the most affordable price and the ability to access them.”

Novo first started selling Wegovy directly to consumers in March, following Lilly’s earlier example. Both drugmakers have been contending with the widespread use of less expensive, copycat versions of their shots - known as compounded drugs - that became popular during supply shortages.

Unlike weight-loss drugs, Ozempic is widely covered by insurance plans for treating diabetes. Patients rarely pay full price. However, Novo said its new offering will expand availability for those who don’t have coverage, giving them access to a more affordable version of the drug.

“While Ozempic is well covered in the US, let’s not forget that there are some patients who pay out-of-pocket for this vital medicine,” Dave Moore, Novo’s head of US operations, said in a statement. “We believe that if even a single patient feels the need to turn to potentially unsafe and unapproved knockoff alternatives, that’s one too many.”

The move follows a long, contentious fight over Ozempic’s price, during which lawmakers on both sides of the aisle used it as an example of how drugmakers charge much more for their medicines in the US than other parts of the world. Last year, Novo’s former Chief Executive Officer Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen was called before a Congressional committee to testify about the price of his company’s drugs.