Novo Nordisk A/S Pulls Tresiba Off Shelves in Germany

Novo Nordisk A/S (NVO) Pulls Tresiba Off Shelves in Germany
July 2, 2015
By Riley McDermid, BioSpace.com Breaking News Sr. Editor

Novo Nordisk will stop distribution of its once-daily insulin drug Tresiba after price negotiation with Germany’s health insurance fund trade group broke down, the company said Thursday.

Novo said that it could not come to an agreement on price with GKV-Spitzenverband, which wanted to set the price level to that of human insulin. The company said in a statement that would be too much of a hit to its bottom line to make creating and distributing the drug worthwhile.

"If we were to accept this price, we would undermine our ability to research and develop medical innovations for people with diabetes," said Jakob Riis, executive vice president, in a statement.

Novo said it will continue to supply Tresiba to the 40,000 Germans currently using it until September 2015. Setting the price at the level of a drug created in the 1980’s forced Novo Nordisk’s hand in the matter, said Riis.

"That would not be in the best interest of the millions of people with diabetes for whom current treatments are insufficient to control their disease,” he said in a statement. “We deeply regret the uncertainty and inconvenience this situation creates for the affected patients and physicians in Germany, and will do our utmost to support them in the process of switching patients to another insulin treatment."

Novo said the German decision will not affect the 30 other countries where Tresiba is distributed.


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