Weight loss drug pricing under fire with pills on the horizon

Senior health reporter Anjalee Khemlani joins Brad Smith and Madison Mills on Catalysts to take a look at pharmaceutical stocks like Novartis (NVS) and Novo Nordisk (NVO) as weight loss drug makers are set to meet with lawmakers like Senator Bernie Sanders to discuss pricing.

Khemlani provides insight into the weight loss drug market and pricing in the US compared to other countries around the world. She explains that Pfizer (PFE), Eli Lilly (LLY), and Novo are among the candidates who could offer weight loss drugs in pill form rather than through injection, which could transform the market.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Catalysts.

This post was written by Naomi Buchanan.

Video Transcript

The race to scale weight loss drugs and increase affordability of those drugs continues joining us with the details.

We got our very own Angelee Clan and on there's a lot of news when it comes to pricing of these drugs.

What is top of mind for you in your reporting?

Yeah, right now I'm actually focused on next week on Tuesday.

We're going to see.

No, no, Ceo Lars Jordan and join Senator Bernie Sanders for what will be a much awaited showdown.

Definitely, he's gonna get grilled on the pricing and we're gonna have a chance to listen to him, talk to lawmakers and that is the eo talk to lawmakers including Bernie Sanders who we know has been really adamant on the idea that these drugs can be sold for lower.

We know that Senator Sanders did meet with some Pharma executives talking about the fact that the generic versions could be sold at a 90% decrease from the branded prices.

And of course, generics will undoubtedly be cheaper.

But when do they get on the market?

We know that for, for a fact will only face generic competition by 2031.

That's the earliest that it is set to competition even though some parts of the patent for the drug are already have already expired.

So it's been building up.

We also know that the company has expected uh to be on C MS S negotiated no negotiation price list for some time since as early as March 2023.

Uh We've heard hints in their earnings calls that they have taken for granted, the fact that they will be on the list at some point.

So whether it's Ozempic uh by brand or the semi glutted, the drug ingredient, that's gonna be on the list.

That's one of the things that we're kind of following, which is, um you know, looking at, uh whether or not they will end up on this drug 2027 or 2028.

In fact, is one of the things that we've seen, we heard, uh EVP Doug Langa who is in charge of North America operations sort of casually throw out there.

You know, we, uh uh they're doing this in 2027.

It does appear that C MS will be implementing a molecule.

So that's something that we're keeping an eye on.

We also know that uh Novo has said that it, it has already dropped the price of uh Ozempic by 40% since it launched in 2017.

Now that may be true from the launch price, we did notice a slight uptick from 935 per month to 968 per month, uh, in the most recent, uh, year or so in the last year or so.

That has been a slight uptick.

So it'll be interesting to see how that all goes through when it comes to facing, uh, Senator Sanders next week.

And so when it comes to delivery of these drugs, what about pills?

Yeah.

Pills is really in the next frontier.

Honestly, that is where the competition is heating up.

We've we got a number of updates from drug companies like Roche as well as Novo nodes last week, uh promising early stage results.

Now, Lily is way ahead in this uh category.

It has already set the bar with the weight loss standard at about 14% weight loss with the pills.

Uh Once daily, there's so many questions though analysts are really waiting to see and as you can see on your, on your screen, these are the companies that are in that pill race right now.

Uh Roche had some interesting side effects and that really pressured the stock last week, but it's not really different GP ones have been known to have really strong nausea, vomiting and dizziness as part of the side effects.

And that's something that they saw that was concerning and it's why analysts have pulled back a little bit.

You're seeing notes everywhere, talking about uh you know, caution and hesitation because of this.

Um some doctors have said this could be a way to maintain weight.

After using injectables, some patients may prefer the weekly monthly injectables rather than the pill.

So the the competition in the market itself so uncertain right now that while it seems appealing, right, the idea of a daily pill versus a weekly injectable, there's still a lot of questions in the air on what that competitive market will look like with the pricing in fact, will look like, right, It's much cheaper to make pills and injectable.

So a lot of questions up in the air still about that and certainly a market for cheaper options when we had that chart up, that was wild.

Just the degree of difference in us pricing versus other companies.

I know you've countries rather, I know you've reported on that quite a bit on Julie, but just to see it, of course, of a different color, fascinating stuff.

Always Angel.

Thank you so much.

Really appreciate it.

Thank you.