2023-08-26 10:31:00
Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk aims to convince European governments to pay for its obesity drug Wegovy, aimed at people who are overweight or have co-morbidities, its chief executive said on Friday, highlighting both the medical benefits and costs of the treatment. news.ro
Wegovy slimming medicinePhoto: Steffen Trumpf / DPA / Profimedia
CEO Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen’s comments were the most detailed yet on the drugmaker’s strategy to expand in Europe, where most countries have public health systems.
“In Europe, we would aim to get reimbursement for those patients with the highest BMI who have co-morbidities and perhaps also those who are less fortunate from a socio-economic point of view,” he told a Archyde.com Newsmaker event , adding that such people are often “among the biggest cost-consumers in health systems.”
Wegovy, the effective slimming drug that is also starting to be launched in Europe
Wegovy is the first drug launched on the market in a new class of highly effective slimming drugs.
Last month, Novo launched Wegovy in Germany, its first major European market. Wegovy is also available in Norway and Denmark.
Used in conjunction with diet changes and exercise, it results in an average weight loss of regarding 15%.
The self-injected drug has transformed the market valuation of Novo, whose shares have risen regarding 165% since Wegovy’s US launch two years ago.
It has also captured the attention of patients, investors and even celebrities.
Earlier this month, the Danish drugmaker raised its full-year profit and sales forecasts for the second time.
Jorgensen said Novo Nordisk, now the second most valuable in Europe, was in uncharted territory.
“This is a very unusual situation for a pharmaceutical company because usually when you launch drugs, you have a relatively well-defined population that you’re going to serve,” Jorgensen said.
“One billion patients worldwide”
“We’re dealing with maybe a billion patients worldwide,” he said, adding that “it would take a few years” before the company might satisfy the entire market.
Analysts estimate the obesity market might be worth as much as $100 billion by the end of the decade as the race to develop weight-loss drugs heats up.
The lion’s share can be claimed by leaders Novo and its US rival Eli Lilly and Co.
Amgen, Pfizer and smaller biotech companies are also developing weight loss drugs.
Great success in the US for Wegovy
Since its launch in June 2021, Wegovy has been flying off the shelves in the United States, where more than 40% of the population is obese.
But Novo has struggled to keep up with demand, even as it has added production capacity.
This experience, along with subsequent launches in Denmark and Norway, taught the company that it is essential to work with health authorities to bring Wegovy to the patients who need it most, as governments will not be able to pay for everyone in their population who are obese, to take the medicine.
“We can see that the demand for the drug is so strong that we actually have to be more decisive regarding how we reach the patients we want to reach and how we collaborate with health systems,” Jorgensen said.
But so far it seems many people are willing to pay out of pocket for Wegovy, he added.
Jorgensen said Novo will introduce Wegovy in more countries, but did not say where or when, adding that it is “trying to limit all these launches” to make them manageable.
Earlier this month, a late-stage, large-scale study showed Wegovy also has a clear cardiovascular benefit, boosting Novo’s hopes of positioning it as more than a lifestyle drug.
Jorgensen said regulators and doctors have reached out to the company in recent weeks “to understand more regarding what the data implies.”
Other positive heart data was also released on Friday.
The study results may help convince US insurers and cost-conscious health authorities in Europe to cover the cost of the weekly injection, which costs $1,300 a month in the United States, for a wider range of patients.
Novo also had problems with the contract manufacturer.
Archyde.com reported in July that the Catalent factory in Brussels, which fills the Wegovy syringes, had repeatedly violated US sterile safety rules in recent years and that staff had failed to carry out necessary quality checks.
Jorgensen said he is confident that Catalent will solve its problems and that by 2024 it hopes to have a third external facility filling and finishing the syringes.
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