By Anna Molin
Danish insulin maker Novo Nordisk A/S (NVO) on Wednesday said it
will stop selling Tresiba, one of its key insulin drugs, in Germany
after a row over prices with the country's powerful health
insurance body.
Novo Nordisk, the Nordic region's biggest company by market
capitalization, said GKV-Spitzenverband, the German national
association of statutory health insurance funds, has decided it
will lower the price of Tresiba from around 2.50 euros ($2.77) a
day to below EUR1 per day, same as the price offered for insulin
launched 30 years ago. The fund sets drug prices in the country
after consultations with health care watchdogs.
The decision to offer the drug at a lower price came after the
German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care, or
IQWiG, in June concluded Tresiba has no added benefit compared to
other diabetes medicines, partly due to a lack of data. Being able
to prove an added benefit can help drug companies secure a higher
price.
Novo Nordisk Executive Vice President Jakob Riis said IQWiG
requested data comparing Tresiba to old human insulin products
whereas Novo Nordisk had done trials comparing the drug to the most
advanced insulin products on the market. These trials, which were
carried out to meet the requirements of the European health
authorities, took years to complete and Mr. Riis said it would be
too time-consuming and costly to conduct individual trials to
satisfy individual markets.
"We're not happy to say the least," Mr. Riis said. "It's
problematic when individual countries have demands for things the
European authorities didn't even request."
The company has spent around $1 billion on developing Tresiba,
which is pegged to take on Sanofi SA's (SAN.FR) best-selling
diabetes treatment Lantus. Accepting a lower price would undermine
its research efforts and spell the end of Novo Nordisk's business
model of 30 years, Mr. Riis said.
Ann Marini, a spokeswoman for GKV-Spitzenverband, in an email
said an arbitration body set a price last week after six months of
negotiations ended without an agreement. She declined further
comment.
Mr. Riis said Novo Nordisk would try to limit the impact on its
employees, but that there was no guarantee the withdrawal wouldn't
lead to layoffs.
Supplies will be phased out until the end of September this year
and will affect some 40,000 people with diabetes currently using
Tresiba.
Novo Nordisk sells a range of insulin products in Germany of
which Tresiba makes up less than 10%.
Write to Anna Molin at anna.molin@wsj.com; Twitter: @AnnaWSJ
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires