Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk has launched its wildly popular weight loss drug Wegovy in China – and it charges just a tiny fraction of what the blockbuster drug costs in the United States.

Like the Wall Street Journal reportsThe drug will first be distributed this week at a public hospital in Shanghai at a price of $193 per one-month supply. That’s a staggering reduction compared to the nearly $1,350 that U.S. customers pay for the exact same thing.

This is even though the drug is not covered by China’s national health insurance program.

The news highlights just how broken the pharmaceutical industry is in the United States, with companies brazenly ripping off the American people for decades now, simply because they can get away with it. With a fragmented commercial health insurance system, perverse incentives for drug manufacturers and no comprehensive price controls are in placepharmaceuticals often sell the exact same prescription drugs at a significant markup in the United States compared to abroad.

During a Senate hearing earlier this year, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders criticized Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Jørgensen on this issue: call the company for “corporate greed”.

“Novo Nordisk has developed breakthrough medicines that, if made affordable, can save the lives of tens of thousands of Americans each year and significantly improve the quality of life for millions more,” Sanders thundered. “If this is not made affordable, Americans across the country will die and suffer needlessly.”

Wegovy was first approved by Chinese regulators in June. The researchers noted that overweight and obesity have become a serious public health problem in the country, particularly among children. Almost one in three children in China has been rated overweight in 2022, and there are signs that the trend is accelerating in the coming years. And more than half of Chinese adults are now overweight or obese, a study finds. Study 2021.

Now that glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonist drugs such as Wegovy and Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic – both of which contain the same active ingredient called semaglutide – have gained popularity, the country may have an effective solution between his hands. .

Scientists have found that in addition to helping patients lose weight, semaglutide appears to have other surprisingly positive effects, such as treat arthritis, cut heart diseaseand apparently even doing developing Alzheimer’s disease is less likely.

And most attractive of all, it is much more accessible from a price point of view in China. Even taking into account lower average incomes, the cost of the drug is several times cheaper than what it is sold for in the United States.

Even in Canada, the drug is sold for just under $300 for a month’s supply, less than a third of the American price.

This type of prohibitive pricing could prove to be a major problem in the United States. The country has a long history of fighting obesity; according to at the Centers for Disease ControlAbout 40 percent of American adults are currently obese.

But gaining access to a potentially life-saving drug like Wegovy could prove much more difficult, particularly for insurance reasons. At a whopping price of $1,350, the shots are out of reach for many Americans.

Learn more about weight loss medications: Mounjaro appears to be extremely effective in preventing diabetes