PARIS: A blockbuster anti-obesity and diabetes drug could cost as little as US$3 per month to manufacture once it goes off patent later this month, researchers said on Friday (Mar 6), providing a major opportunity to boost health in low and middle-income countries.
Semaglutide, the active molecule in Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy treatments, leads to considerable weight loss in patients and thus can provide major help in managing diabetes and other medical problems related to obesity.
Semaglutide will lose patent protection in countries such as Brazil, China and India later this month, and researchers identified 150 countries where it was never patented.
Using pricing information from other medicines that recently went off patent, researchers in Britain, South Africa and New Zealand calculated the potential generic manufacturing price for semaglutide.
They estimated it will cost as little as US$3 to produce a month’s supply of semaglutide, which in its branded form sells for around US$200 a month in the United States.
Dr Samuel Cross of Imperial College London, one of the study’s authors, noted that obesity and diabetes are chronic diseases that increase the risk of stroke, diabetes, heart disease, kidney failure and cancer.
“If generic production reduces prices to sustainable levels, millions more people could access treatment,” he said.
