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Large Pharma thinks Medicare needs to be paying on your weight-loss medication.

Firms behind eating regimen medicines like Wegovy and Mounjaro are lobbying Congress to get their medicines coated beneath Medicare, which might strengthen already blockbuster gross sales.

Oh, Oh, Oh

Danish medical firm Novo Nordisk debuted Ozempic in 2017 as a once-weekly diabetes remedy, however the treatment rapidly skyrocketed in reputation amongst Hollywood celebrities and viral TikTokers seeking to preserve a seaside bod 12 months spherical. Docs additionally started prescribing it to chubby sufferers who did not have diabetes, leading to shortages for precise diabetics. However Novo Nordisk execs can sleep straightforward realizing the corporate’s inventory has elevated 125% previously 5 years and the model’s market cap sits at $380 billion.

In 2021, the US Meals and Drug Administration authorised the method as a weight reduction treatment, a designation Eli Lilly remains to be attempting to acquire for its product, Mounjaro. Novo Nordisk began distributing the drug beneath two names – Ozempic for diabetes and Wegovy for weight reduction.

By no means ones to scrimp on lobbying, pharmaceutical firms are rising their spending because the demand for his or her weight-loss medication ramps up:

• Novo Nordisk has spent many years calling on Congress to approve Medicare protection for weight-loss medication. It has additionally spent a mean of $3 million a 12 months on these efforts since 2013, The Wall Avenue Journal reported. Final 12 months, the corporate dropped $4.6 million on lobbying.
• Wegovy would price uninsured sufferers greater than $10,000, and Novo Nordisk argues that the potential well being advantages to the 65 million senior residents enrolled in Medicare needs to be sufficient for this system to cowl weight-loss medication.

Protection For Some, However Not All: Sadly for Large Pharma, Congress would not appear to be involved in giving the go-ahead for weight-loss medication. Even lawmakers who help masking the medicines are discovering the fee troublesome to bear. Sources advised the WSJ that legislators like Sen. Invoice Cassidy (R., La.) are working with the Congressional Funds Workplace to deliver costs down and are proposing solely limiting protection to individuals with greater physique mass indexes.