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CompaniesNovo Nordisk A/SEli Lilly and Co LONDON, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Novo Nordisk (NOVOb.CO), opens new tab said on Wednesday it had agreed a price under the U.S. Medicare scheme for semaglutide, the active ingredient in its key drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, in a deal that some analysts said sounded less onerous than feared. The U.S. Inflation Reduction Act requires pharmaceutical companies to negotiate drug prices with the Medicare health insurance programme, which covers more than 60 million people. Advertisement · Scroll to continueReport Ad The price will take effect in 2027. The announcement came alongside Novo's third-quarter earnings and a cut to its 2025 financial guidance for the fourth time this year. It also comes the day after a White House source said Novo and U.S. rival Eli Lilly (LLY.N), opens new tab were expected to announce deals this week with the Trump administration to cut prices of their weight-loss drugs in exchange for Medicare coverage. Novo did not disclose the agreed price, but said that if applied this year it would have had a "low-single-digit negative impact on sales". JP Morgan analysts estimated this could equate to around a 6 billion Danish crown ($937 million) hit to sales, adding that was "better than feared" and could offset the negative news from the guidance cut. Advertisement · Scroll to continue "The shares could ultimately be in positive territory today," they wrote in a note. Novo's stock was up 2.2% at 0947 GMT, after falling as much as 3.7% in early trade. Markus Manns, a portfolio manager at mutual fund and Novo shareholder Union Investment, also said that Novo's comments on the U.S. deal "implies a price cut less than feared". The IRA, implemented under President Joseph Biden in 2022, allows Medicare to negotiate prices on select high-cost drugs. Ozempic and Wegovy are among 15 medicines in the law's second round of negotiations. ($1 = 6.4029 Danish crowns) Ad Break Coming Up NEXT StayNext OffEnglish 180p288p360p480p540p576p720pHD1080pHDAuto (180p) About ConnatixV2139381526 About ConnatixV2139381526 Continue watchingafter the adVisit Advertiser websiteGO TO PAGE Reporting by Maggie Fick. Editing by Jan Harvey and Mark Potter Purchase Licensing Rights Maggie FickThomson ReutersMaggie is a Britain-based reporter covering the European pharmaceuticals industry with a global perspective. In 2023, Maggie's coverage of Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk and its race to increase production of its new weight-loss drug helped the Health & Pharma team win a Reuters Journalists of the Year award in the Beat Coverage of the Year category. Since November 2023, she has also been participating in Reuters coverage related to the Israel-Hamas war. Previously based in Nairobi and Cairo for Reuters and in Lagos for the Financial Times, Maggie got her start in journalism in 2010 as a freelancer for The Associated Press in South Sudan. EmailLinkedinBhanvi SatijaThomson ReutersBhanvi is a London-based reporter covering European pharmaceutical companies and the healthcare industry. She previously covered U.S. health and pharma firms, with a focus on the new weight loss drugs that are transforming the obesity treatment space. Her coverage includes a trend piece on the underuse of their weight-loss drugs among men, increased interest in therapies being developed for preservation of lean mass, and a scoop on gene therapy maker Sarepta defying an FDA order to stop shipping its muscular dystrophy treatment.EmailX
