The price of Wegovy will quickly be lined by Medicare, in response to an announcement from the federal medical health insurance program for seniors on Thursday. And whereas that’s nice information for individuals over 65 who need entry to a medicine that’s drawn a lot consideration for its skill to help with weight loss, there’s only one catch. Medicare will solely pay if sufferers have probably severe coronary heart issues.
Wegovy is the model identify of Novo Nordisk’s anti-obesity remedy semaglutide, first authorized within the U.S. in 2021. And together with Ozempic, which can be made by Novo Nordisk, the medicine have change into hot-ticket objects for individuals trying to reduce weight. However the price of Wegovy, which might be over $1,300 a month, has been prohibitively costly for a lot of People.
Wegovy was discovered to scale back coronary heart assaults and strokes in a serious trial last summer, paving the best way for the FDA to approve medical doctors having the ability to prescribe the remedy for that function earlier this month.
A spokesperson with Novo Nordisk, which is predicated in Denmark, informed Gizmodo on Thursday the corporate is inspired by the brand new steerage from the Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Companies, however pressured that weight problems alone was a problem that ought to get correct consideration when the federal government is providing this sort of monetary assist.
“Wegovy is the one weight administration drugs that can be authorized to scale back the threat of main antagonistic cardiovascular occasions in sufferers with established heart problems and both weight problems or chubby. However there’s extra work to be accomplished as a result of Half D protection remains to be not accessible for weight problems medicines when used for continual weight administration,” the Novo Nordisk particular person wrote.
The Inflation Discount Act, handed in 2022, included quite a lot of new provisions to assist these on Medicare, together with a brand new cap on prescription drug prices of $3,000 that takes impact this 12 months. That change will assist about 1 million seniors who pay for extremely pricey medicine generally utilized in most cancers sufferers.
However even with constructive modifications just like the Inflation Discount Act, the price of medicine within the U.S. remains to be astronomically excessive in comparison with different international locations. And these sorts of enhancements assist these on Medicare, the fee is borne by the taxpayer relatively than by a negotiation of decrease costs usually achieved in peer international locations. Medicare was banned from negotiating costs on most medicine in 2003, a disastrous regulation that’s now being slowly rolled again by laws championed by Democrats and President Joe Biden.
The Related Press factors on the market’s severe debate about whether or not Medicare ought to cowl anti-obesity medicine like Wegovy, actually because it’s not clear whether or not the excessive costs paid by the federal government might be offset by decreases in prices for treating obesity.
“We’ll proceed to advocate for insurance policies that allow entry to weight problems medicines for the various sufferers who don’t but have protection,” Novo Nordisk informed Gizmodo. “Collaboration throughout the healthcare system is vital to teach and to broaden protection of weight problems medicines.”
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