NVO - Setback For Novo Nordisk? Denmark Shifts Prescription Guidelines Favoring Cost-Effective Alternatives For Ozempic | Benzinga
Denmark’s healthcare authority has decided to favor less expensive drugs for type 2 diabetes patients, impacting the prescription of costlier GLP-1 drugs such as Novo Nordisk’s (NYSE:NVO) Ozempic. This comes a day ahead of the company announcing its first-quarter earnings of 2024.
What Happened: The Danish Medicines Agency disclosed on Wednesday that starting from Nov. 25, patients will be prescribed less expensive drugs before resorting to GLP-1 drugs. The agency noted that in 2023, half of the new type 2 diabetes patients started their treatment with a reimbursed GLP-1 drug without trying a cheaper alternative first.
Despite the popularity of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic due to their weight-loss effects, the Danish Medicines Agency expects nearly half of all current GLP-1 drug users to switch to cheaper alternatives. The agency reassured that it would continue to reimburse patients for their GLP-1 drugs if the less expensive alternatives ...