For the millions of people living with diabetes or obesity, drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy can significantly improve their health.

Ozempic and Wegovy are making so much money for Novo Nordisk A/S that their cumulative sales will soon surpass the drugmaker’s entire research budget for the past three decades, undercutting a key argument for their unusually high prices.

WASHINGTON — Senate health committee chair Bernie Sanders said major drug middlemen have agreed not to limit coverage of Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy if the company lowers the prices of the treatments. It’s Sanders’ latest move to pressure Novo to cut the prices of the blockbuster diabetes and obesity therapies.

Hi, it’s Bob in New York. I’ve been writing about drug costs for years, and Ozempic and Wegovy turn out to be in a unique category. Before we get to that

Weight-loss drugs sell in Europe for a fraction of what they cost in the United States, a pattern that is typical for brand-name prescriptions.

The CEO of Novo Nordisk faced pointed questions about the cost of Ozempic and Wegovy on Capitol Hill Tuesday, as lawmakers pressed the Danish pharmaceutical giant to cut the prices of its blockbuster diabetes and obesity medications.

Novo Nordisk's blockbuster diabetes drug Ozempic will be eligible for U.S. government's price negotiations in less than a year based on current criteria, the Danish drugmaker's CEO Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen said in his written testimony on Monday.