It"s a subject that angers Americans: high drug costs when other countries' prices are lower and production costs and too. Ozempic could be profitably produced for less than $5 a month even as maker Novo Nordisk A/S charges almost $1,000 in the US, according to a study that revives questions about prices for top-selling treatments for diabetes and obesity.
The drug could be manufactured for 89 cents to $4.73 for a month’s supply, figures that include a profit margin, researchers at Yale University, King’s College Hospital in London and the nonprofit Doctors Without Borders reported in the journal JAMA Network Open. That compares to the monthly US list price of $968.52 for Ozempic, a weekly injection.
The active drug in Ozempic can be produced for about 29 cents for a month’s supply, or 7.2 cents for a typical weekly dose, the research found. It’s not cheap to make — semaglutide costs over $70,000 per kilogram. But only a tiny quantity of the drug is used in each weekly dose.
Other costs include those of filling each pen, estimated at 20 cents per monthly dose, and other chemical ingredients, which the study estimates at 15 cents per monthly dose.
The analysis doesn’t include estimates for the cost of making Wegovy. Separate research from the University of Liverpool and elsewhere found last year that Wegovy could be produced for a mere $40 a month.
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