2024-09-26
9 分钟NPR.
The CEO of Novo Nordisk, a danish company that makes the weight loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovi, was on Capitol Hill yesterday.
A Senate committee questioned Lars Vrogard Jorgensen on why those drugs cost close to $1,000 for a month's supply in the US.
That's more than five times higher than the next highest international list price in Japan.
Jorgensen blamed the complicated health insurance system in the US, which includes pharmacy benefit managers, aka pbms.
We have to negotiate against pbms and their insurance companies not taking much risk and yet benefiting from it for the list price, I think that's absurd.
This follows the US Federal Trade Commission filing a lawsuit against three of the country's biggest pbms just last week.
CV's, Caremark Express scripts, and Optumrx.
The FTC claims these companies engaged in unfair practices that artificially inflated insulin prices.
So what the heck are pbms and why do they have so much power in the medicinal marketplace?
This is the indicator from Planet money.
I'm Darian woods.
And I'm Adrian Ma.
To answer that question, we're going to share with you an episode we originally ran two years ago.
And as you'll hear, the power of pbms involves secret deals and double agents.
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