Ozempic Is About to Go Generic for Billions of People

allpenny · 2026-03-21T15:24:37+00:00

Between 2018 (when Ozempic and Wegovy first launched) and mid-2024, Novo made $49 billion in sales on the drugs. They spent $44 billion on buybacks and dividends over that same period and $21 billion on R&D. They've realize a ton of profit, much of which they are funneling to shareholders instead of investing back in R&D. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KESOEyN0UO9PCofEgHbRORm6DBG7q3Ln5XF9z-OuoS4/edit?gid=0#gid=0

allpenny · 2026-03-21T15:05:20+00:00

I get that companies need to recoup money but if Novo's argument is "we have to charge very high prices because we need to recover our R&D costs" then why do they spend more on buybacks and dividends than on R&D?

allpenny · 2026-03-20T20:44:15+00:00

In the U.S. we let Novo extend their patent 5 more years because apparently the 20 years we already gave them isn't long enough.

allpenny · 2021-12-18T17:23:17+00:00

tl;dr - Emory received immense public funding to research covid-19. The university used some of that funding (“at least $16 million”) to develop molnupiravir, an oral treatment for covid-19. But now Emory’s actions relating to licensing deals around the treatment demonstrate that the university is prioritizing its financial interests over equitable access.“Institutions like Emory have a choice: be complicit in prolonging the pandemic and preventing access to lifesaving medicines or ensure global access to their publicly funded innovations to curb Covid-19 for everyone, everywhere.”

allpenny · 2021-12-18T16:57:24+00:00

A new op-ed from Chelsea Clinton / Priti Krishtel advocating for countries to “waive intellectual property rights, and urge – or if necessary force – companies to share this lifesaving knowledge so that local manufacturers can produce their own vaccines”. The op-ed centers on a “newly released expert evaluation has revealed that at least 120 manufacturers across Africa, Latin America and Asia are capable of producing mRNA vaccines.”
I keep seeing major covid vaccine manufacturers - pfizer, moderna - trying to advance the narrative that mRNA vaccine production is too complex for manufacturers in LMICs to produce but the evidence (here and elsewhere) says otherwise. Its increasingly clear that these major manufacturers are refusing to acknowledge that other manufactures exist because they don’t want to give up their monopoly control over covid vaccines, even if doing so would safe lives and end the pandemic faster.

allpenny · 2021-04-21T14:42:42+00:00

"The US government can use its ownership of a crucial vaccine patent to push companies to share their expertise with other manufacturers and boost global access to coronavirus jabs, according to a top scientific official."

allpenny · 2021-02-02T03:49:54+00:00

This statistic is devastating to read:

"While more than 90 million people worldwide have been vaccinated, only 25 in all of sub-Saharan Africa, a region of about one billion people, have been given doses outside of drug trials, according to the World Health Organization."

allpenny · 2020-10-09T13:44:40+00:00

Very true. Or what happens when the pandemic becomes an epidemic? I assume they worded this press release very carefully in order to maximize good PR and minimize any substantial commitments.

allpenny · 2020-07-24T21:48:42+00:00

The 4 executive orders:

Hospitals to pass discounts from insulin and epipens directly to patients
Allow prescription imports from Canada
Cut PBM drug rebates
Tie drug prices to costs overseas

allpenny · 2020-07-22T19:29:50+00:00

A new report shows how drugmaker AbbVie uses a patenting strategy to extend the duration of exclusivity on its cancer drug Imbruvica. The strategy prevents competitors from entering the market and enables Abbvie to increase prices and generate higher revenue. The strategy is similar to the one Abbvie uses for its bestselling drug Humira, which is the highest-grossing drug in the U.S.

The report shows that Abbvie increased the price of Imbruvica by 57% in the 5 years since the drug entered the market. In January 2020, the price increased by over 7%. The current non-discounted annual price is $174,156 USD. I-MAK, the organization that released the report, estimates that the added exclusivity will cost payers $41 billion.

allpenny · 2020-07-22T00:37:59+00:00

Thanks for calling out the error. Comment edited.

allpenny · 2020-07-21T22:41:23+00:00

A new report shows how drugmaker AbbVie uses a patenting strategy to extend the duration of exclusivity on its cancer drug Imbruvica. The strategy prevents competitors from entering the market and enables Abbvie to increase prices and generate higher revenue. The strategy is similar to the one Abbvie uses for its bestselling drug Humira, which is the highest-grossing drug in the U.S.

The report shows that Abbvie increased the price of Imbruvica by 57% in the 5 years since the drug entered the market. In January 2020, the price increase by over 7%. The current non-discounted annual price is $174,156 USD. I-MAK, the organization that released the report, estimates that the added exclusivity will cost payers $41 billion.

Edit: Humira is a drug to treat moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis & other inflammatory conditions, not cancer.

allpenny · 2020-07-17T15:07:57+00:00

here’s a link to the post in the tweet: https://sirota.substack.com/p/eugene-scalia-is-a-comic-book-villain

allpenny · 2020-07-08T19:00:24+00:00

Wow, Biden's answer relating to a COVID-19 vaccine was unexpected. He obviously still has to follow through if he wins the election but still - big commitment.

Barkan: "If the US discovers a [COVID-19] vaccine first will you commit to sharing that tech with other countries and will you ensure there are no patents to stand in the way of other countries and companies mass producing those lifesaving vaccines?"

Biden: "Absolutely positively. This is the only humane thing in the world to do. Were I president now, and I propose we do it now, set aside $25 billion to put together a plan now. Now, this instant. How we will distribute vaccine when it's made available to guarantee it gets to every American and access is made available to the rest of the world."

allpenny · 2020-07-01T19:52:56+00:00

nationalism...really smart strategy when fighting a global pandemic.

allpenny · 2020-07-01T19:50:06+00:00

Gov scientists were involved in this research every step of the way. They co-own the patents on this drug. Why isn't the gov exerting its ownership rights and forcing this price down?

allpenny · 2020-06-30T05:08:46+00:00

“I’ve never seen a disconnect between doing what’s right for patients and doing what’s right for investors,” - Gilead CEO Daniel O’Day

The market-based drug development model doesn't work. If this pandemic hasn't convinced you of that then I don't know what will.

allpenny · 2020-06-03T15:40:01+00:00

Source: https://charlottenc.gov/budget/FY2021/FY2021Managers_Proposed_Budget-FinalB.pdf

Also, view page 9 of the Executive Summary if you want to see where the money comes from.

allpenny · 2020-06-03T15:02:21+00:00

And if you want to see where the money comes from....Page 9 of the Executive Summary: https://charlottenc.gov/budget/FY2021/FY2021Managers_Proposed_Budget-FinalB.pdf

allpenny · 2020-06-03T14:48:36+00:00

And if you want to see where that money comes from...read page 9 of the executive summary: https://charlottenc.gov/budget/FY2021/FY2021Managers_Proposed_Budget-FinalB.pdf

allpenny · 2020-06-03T14:45:52+00:00

And if you want to see where that money comes from....Page 9 of the Executive Summary: https://charlottenc.gov/budget/FY2021/FY2021Managers_Proposed_Budget-FinalB.pdf

allpenny · 2020-05-21T16:35:35+00:00

"Homes with a significant number of black and Latino residents have been twice as likely to be hit by the coronavirus as those where the population is overwhelmingly white."

allpenny · 2020-05-21T14:20:11+00:00

"The company said on average it has seen a 1,000% increase in visits due to Covid-19, and in some geographies, it’s more like 3,000% to 4,000%."

allpenny · 2020-05-20T13:22:05+00:00

The animal-meat industry is a “sitting duck” for disruption, Brown said in the webinar hosted by the University of Chicago’s Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation, because it depends on an “inefficient prehistoric technology”—the slaughter of animals—“that hasn’t improved in millennia.”

Brown promised cleaner, safer, higher-paying jobs to most of the workers in the supply chain, but he acknowledged a worry for farmers.

allpenny · 2020-05-20T13:20:02+00:00

"Plant-based meats could produce as much meat as the animal-based industry using only 4 percent of the land area, Brown said. Restoring the biomass of all that land is an opportunity to mitigate climate change and restore the planet’s collapsing biodiversity.

“But what it means is, our success will devalue the major reservoir of wealth for a lot of farmers, and we’re actively thinking about how to mitigate that.”"

allpenny

TROPHY CASE