Novo Nordisk CEO agrees to Bernie Sanders’ demand to testify on Ozempic, Wegovy prices

WASHINGTON — Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen will testify before the Senate after Sen. Bernie Sanders threatened to subpoena the company over its pricing of the popular diabetes drug Ozempic and the obesity drug Wegovy, the Senate health committee announced Friday.

The agreement is a finale to a farcical public back-and-forth over apparent difficulties between the Senate health committee and Novo in scheduling a hearing. Sanders’ team claimed that Novo was uncooperative with his requests, but the company said they had told the senator’s team that the company was willing to testify.

Jørgensen’s appearance is a pivot for the panel, as Sanders (I-Vt.) had originally scheduled a vote to subpoena the chief of Novo’s U.S. division, Doug Langa, instead. Sanders said that the scheduled subpoena vote, which even Democratic senators wouldn’t firmly commit to supporting, has been canceled.

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