Novo Nordisk Pledges to Limit Drug Price Increases, Critics Respond

In an effort to combat controversy over climbing prices, and hoping to simplify a complex system, Novo Nordisk has detailed a series of steps to ensure a “positive impact on affordability for patients,” according to a recent press release.

“We recognize that people with diabetes are finding it harder to pay for their health care, including the medicines we make,” the press release on the drugmaker’s site stated. “As a company focused on improving the lives of people with diabetes, this is not acceptable. Ensuring access and affordability is a responsibility we share with all involved in health care and we are going to do our part.” 

Novo Nordisk outlined their plan to limit any potential future list price increases to no more than single-digit percentages each year. The company also stated they intend to reduce “the burden of out-of-pocket costs” by making continuing investments in copay assistance programs, maintaining a patient assistance program, and ensuring there is always a lower-priced option available in the form of human insulin.

“The best approach to viable solutions is through collaboration among pharmaceutical companies, payers, pharmacy benefit managers, insurance companies, employers, patient organizations, and policy makers,” Jakob Riis, PhD, MSc, president of Novo Nordisk’s operations in the United States, said in the press release. “We welcome and will actively seek collaborations leading to sustainable solutions.”

However, some consumer advocates feel that Novo Nordisk’s pledge is hollow and instead suggests that drugmakers will continue the trend of steadily raising insulin prices.

“The prescription drug market is clearly broken when limiting yearly price increases to ten percent is considered bighearted,” John Rother, executive director of the Campaign for Sustainable Rx Pricing, recently said in a statement. “[This] announcement is insulting to the millions of patients that have already endured prescription price hikes for years, and this announcement is proof that there is no end in sight.”

Meanwhile, President-Elect Donald Trump recently pledge to “bring down” drug prices—a promise that Chris Meekins, a health policy research analyst at FBR & Co, told CNBC may be difficult to keep considering that HHS Secretary Nominee Tom Price is against government regulations on pharmaceutical prices. —Chris Evangelista