Novo Nordisk Soars After 50% Ozempic Discount, Liver Treatment Approval

Cash truly is king. On Monday, shares in Novo Nordisk jumped 4% after the drugmaker announced that US customers who pay out-of-pocket will be able to buy its blockbuster diabetes drug Ozempic for less than half the list price.

In a year of struggles against copycats, an emboldened chief rival and political pressure over high prices, executives are no doubt hoping the discount will prove a crowning achievement. 

A Letter from Washington

Without insurance, Ozempic can set back US customers roughly $1,350 a month, or enough to rent a one-bedroom apartment in Kansas City (where the local barbecue might have you in need of a GLP-1 prescription). That hefty price tag has led to a bipartisan pushback in Washington, including from President Donald Trump, who sent a letter to Novo last month demanding executives lower prices for their company’s treatments. Trump also urged drugmakers to develop direct-to-consumer sales models for their medicines. Americans spent $98 billion out of pocket on prescriptions last year, a 25% cumulative increase over five years, according to IQVIA, while a majority worry that prescription costs are unaffordable, according to KFF polling. 

Meanwhile, Novo has its own incentives to lower prices. For one, customers flocked to cheaper copycat drugs that exploded in popularity during a multi-year GLP-1 shortage, one that the FDA declared over earlier this year. And the company’s chief rival in the GLP-1 space, Mounjaro- and Zepbound-maker Eli Lilly, has been binge-eating market share. Last month, the pressure prompted Novo to slash its sales and profit forecasts, prompting a massive selloff on Wall Street (shares are down 37% this year). On Monday, the company signalled it will defend its turf:

• Novo said cash-paying Americans can now buy Ozempic for $499 per month through its official website, its patient assistance program, its newly launched direct-to-consumer online pharmacy, or through discount telehealth platform GoodRx. The move follows Novo’s decision to halve the price of weight-loss treatment Wegovy in March.
• Its price reductions follow similar cuts from Eli Lilly, which slashed the prices of both its weight loss and obesity GLP-1 drugs in March. David Ricks, Eli Lilly’s CEO, said at the time that about 10% of the 1 million people who bought Zepbound did so from the company’s website.

MASHing Success: Monday’s news came on the heels of a Friday victory for Novo, when Wegovy received FDA approval to treat metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), a liver condition that affects roughly 5% of US adults, potentially opening up a market of millions of new customers. It was the first GLP-1 treatment to be approved for MASH, giving Novo a leg up against its biggest competitor. Rival Lilly, meanwhile, has run trials, inked deals and even made an acquisition earlier this year with an eye to rolling out MASH treatments.