If Americans Just Ate Healthy & Exercised, Then Politicians Wouldn’t be Clamoring About $1,000 Weight Loss Drugs “Bankrupting” Medicare
If the food-industrial complex had not flooded the nation’s food supply with junk, if the government actively encouraged healthy lifestyles, and if efforts to address the obesity crisis didn’t rely solely on ‘miracle weight loss drugs’ pushed by the pharmaceutical industry, then maybe – just maybe – politicians wouldn’t be clamoring on Capitol Hill, or the elderly (somewhat senile) president in the White House, about out-of-control drug prices.
But since common sense has vanished in America and folks have given up on Peloton bikes for $1,000 monthly injections of “Wegovy,” the blockbuster weight loss treatment (also a diabetes drug called “Ozempic”) from Novo Nordisk, then socialists, such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), wouldn’t be reviving the discussion about high drug prices.
“Today, a new Yale study found that Ozempic costs less than $5 a month to manufacture. And yet, Novo Nordisk charges Americans nearly $1,000 a month for this drug, while the same exact product can be purchased for just $155 a month in Canada and just $59 in Germany,” Sanders said in a statement.
Sanders cited the study “Estimated Sustainable Cost-Based Prices for Diabetes Medicines,” conducted by researchers at Yale University, King’s College Hospital in London, and the nonprofit Doctors Without Borders. It was published in the journal JAMA Network Open on Wednesday.
In the study, researchers found Novo could produce the blockbuster drug for 89 cents to $4.73 per month, as opposed to the monthly retail price of about $1,349 for Wegovy, a semaglutide injection.
“As Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), I am calling on Novo Nordisk to lower the list price of Ozempic — and the related drug Wegovy — in America to no more than what they charge for this drug in Canada,” Sander said.
He added: “The American people are sick and tired of paying, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs while the pharmaceutical industry enjoys huge profits.”
Sanders warned: “This outrageously high price has the potential to bankrupt Medicare, the American people and our entire health care system.
There is no rational reason, other than greed, for Novo Nordisk to charge Americans nearly $1,000 a month for Ozempic when it costs less than $5 to manufacture it and can be purchased in Germany for just $59. Novo must substantially reduce the price of Ozempic in the US now. pic.twitter.com/rdyF5MCQbX
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) March 27, 2024
Analysts have forecasted that the market for weight-loss drugs could reach at least $100 billion a year by the end of the decade, with the production of Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s Zepbound and Mounjaro. And a decent chunk of the weight loss drugs will likely be covered by Medicare.
“The profit margin is immense” on weight loss drugs like Ozempic, Melissa Barber, a public health economist at Yale and the study’s lead author, told Bloomberg. She added, “There should be a conversation in policy about what is a fair price.”
Rounding back to the intro of this note, Americans should eat better and exercise. Then, we don’t have to rely on the pharmaceutical-industrial complex. What’s odd is the government does not promote ‘common sense’ healthy lifestyles. Why is that? Are their donors pharma companies?
Former German Chancellor Says Friendship With Putin Could Help End Ukraine Conflict
Talking to Moscow is the only way to end the hostilities between Russia and Ukraine, according to former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder His personal friendship with the Russian President Vladimir Putin could play a role […]
The post Former German Chancellor Says Friendship With Putin Could Help End Ukraine Conflict appeared first on The People’s Voice.
CDC Warns ‘Super Gonorrhea’ Will Be Next Pandemic From China
China is fuelling a global rise in ‘super gonorrhea’ – a new infectious disease that is set to become the next pandemic, according to the CDC. 98 percent of bacteria samples taken from patients with […]
The post CDC Warns ‘Super Gonorrhea’ Will Be Next Pandemic From China appeared first on The People’s Voice.
WEF Launching AI-Powered Control Grid To Kill Independent Media
WEF-controlled institutions are working together to round up political dissidents and punish them for the “crime” of opposing their dystopian agenda, using an AI-driven surveillance and control grid. Independent journalist Leo Hohmann warns that WEF-infiltrated […]
The post WEF Launching AI-Powered Control Grid To Kill Independent Media appeared first on The People’s Voice.
Investigators Uncover Link Between Moscow Terror Attack and Ukrainian Operatives
The suspects in last week’s Moscow concert hall attack were linked to Ukrainian operatives, the Russian Investigative Committee declared on Thursday. The terrorists had received “significant sums of money” from the Ukraine government, the law enforcement agency […]
The post Investigators Uncover Link Between Moscow Terror Attack and Ukrainian Operatives appeared first on The People’s Voice.
CTBTO Chief on US Maintaining Readiness to Test: All Parties Expected to Honor Moratorium
UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) – The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) expects all parties to the treaty to observe the moratorium, CTBTO Executive Secretary Robert Floyd told Sputnik, commenting on the US policy of maintaining readiness to conduct nuclear tests.
Speaking at the Brookings Institution earlier this month, Principal Deputy Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) at the US Department of Energy Frank Rose said that under US law, the American government is “required to maintain the readiness to test should the President direct us to.” However, NNSA is of the opinion that, given the investments the US has made in stockpile stewardship, it does not need to return to testing, Rose stated.
“All States Signatories are expected to maintain the moratorium on nuclear testing,” Floyd said in an interview.
On October 10, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said there were signs of the US preparing or at least having prepared “to the last” nuclear tests in Nevada. On October 18, the US conducted an explosive underground experiment at the site where it had previously tested nuclear weapons but denied it was a nuclear test. The experiment came hours after the Russian lower house passed a bill revoking the ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).
In December, US National Nuclear Security Administration chief Jill Hruby said that the United States is not preparing any nuclear tests at the Nevada National Security Site, adding that Washington had “nothing to hide” with regard to its experiments at the location.
Russia remains a party to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty with the same obligations and rights, despite the country withdrawing its ratification, Floyd said.
“The Russian Federation remains a State Signatory to the Treaty, with the same obligations and rights as all other state signatories. The Russian Federation has stated that it remains committed to the Treaty, including the operation of all CTBTO monitoring stations on its territory and the sharing of that data with all states, and, at the close of last year, completed the development and certification of the Russian segment of the IMS [the International Monitoring System],” Floyd said in an interview.
Floyd added that he continues to engage with the Russian permanent representative to international organizations in Vienna.
The CTBT is a multilateral accord that bans nuclear weapon test explosions and all other nuclear explosions for civilian and military purposes. The treaty was adopted in 1996 but has never gone into effect, as it would require ratification by all 44 countries that had nuclear power or research reactors at the time it was signed. Of the nine recognized nuclear powers, only France and the United Kingdom have signed and ratified the treaty.
The US signed the treaty in 1996, but the Senate refused to provide its consent in 1999, thereby blocking its ratification.
On November 2, 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a bill into law to revoke the ratification of the CTBT. The Kremlin said that the move was meant to restore parity with the US.
Putin said in March that Russia is not ruling out doing nuclear tests if the United States conducts them first.
Of the nine recognized nuclear powers, only France and the United Kingdom have signed and ratified the treaty. The United States, China, and Israel have signed but not ratified the treaty, while India, Pakistan, and North Korea have neither signed nor ratified it.
Robert Floyd said that he calls on North Korea to keep its 2018 pledge to refrain from nuclear tests.
The secretary said that he “urges DPRK to continue to abide by its 2018 pledge not to conduct nuclear tests.”
Floyd said that during his visit to Seoul, South Korea in August, he messaged Pyongyang his willingness to meet with North Korean officials to discuss their concerns and underscored that signing the treaty would be a “major confidence-building measure.”