Obesity drug data could boost the companies’ case for US coverage analysts.

Aug 10 (Reuters) – New data on the heart benefit of an obesity drug from Novo Nordisk (NOVOb.CO) it increases the chances of a payout for him and Eli Lilly, who have spent a record amount lobbying the US to win government backing for drugs, analysts and experts said.

US law classifies weight-loss treatments as lifestyle drugs and prohibits Medicare from paying for them. Novo and Eli Lilly have spent nearly $1.3 million this year lobbying the US Congress on obesity and specifically on a bill reintroduced in July that would allow the Medicare health plan to reimburse these drugs.

Novo’s treatment has been shown to reduce heart attacks and strokes by 20% and the drugmaker has said it will seek regulatory approval for Wegovy as a cardiovascular treatmentwhich analysts and health policy experts said could also be a route to getting reimbursed from Medicare.

Vanderbilt University professor Stacie Dusetzina said she thought the trial results could provide an avenue of coverage for people similar to those in the study in terms of having had a previous heart attack or stroke.

“The drug ingredient semaglutide is already covered when used in lower doses for the treatment of diabetes, so if the drug is given additional indications that Medicare normally covers, I hope those patients will have access to the drug,” he said.

Eli Lilly’s Wegovy and Mounjaro, a diabetes treatment similar to Wegovy that is expected to be approved for obesity this year, are two of the fastest-growing drugs in the country, priced at more than $1,000 a month. Wegovy prescriptions jumped 300% at their peak, according to Barclays data, before supply problems began to hamper sales.

Novo Nordisk’s chief financial officer, Karsten Munk Knudsen, said on Thursday that he hopes the new data will help in his discussions with public health authorities and other payers about Wegovy’s benefits.

“Our assessment is that this will make a huge difference to both patients and prescribers and payers,” he said on a media call after the company increase your outlook for the full year.

“This is key evidence when we have discussions with payers globally in terms of the value of obesity care treatments.”

Eli Lilly did not respond to requests for comment.

AN IMPRESSIVE CASE

Analysts said the data made a compelling case for the drug’s long-term health benefits.

“This 20% risk reduction in cardiovascular events, including death, will start to make a big difference and a real push to change the law,” said Evan Seigerman, an analyst at BMO.

Analysts were divided on whether Medicare could cover Wegovy as a cardiovascular treatment without passage of a new law. Three obesity doctors, including a cardiologist, were unsure if such an order would qualify for Medicare coverage.

Dr. Eugene Yang, a cardiologist at the Medical University of Washington, said that while the data has yet to be peer-reviewed and published, it is promising because he and his colleagues have not had a strategy to deal with the rising rates. of obesity and corresponding cardiovascular problems sooner.

“The devil will be in the details, but having a therapeutic option that reduces weight and has potential cardiovascular benefit is exciting,” he said.

Morningstar analyst Damien Conover noted that the study’s positive result would likely push taxpayers, a group that includes insurance companies, employers and Medicare, to increase coverage over the next year.

Companies that provide health care insurance have begun to drop coverage for weight loss drugs due to the high cost of the drugs.

Benefits experts warned that it would be difficult to pass a law that would increase the costs of Medicare, which covers some 66 million people, most of them older than 65.

NEW SPENDING ON RHYTHM TO APPROVE 2022

In the run-up to the result, lobbying firms employed by the Danish drugmaker disclosed a collective spending of $630,000 in the first half of this year to urge lawmakers to allow Medicare to cover weight-loss drugs, even in the law reintroduced by Democratic Senator Tom Carper called the Obesity Treatment and Reduction Act (TROA).

That’s nearly two-thirds of Novo’s reported lobbying spending for all of 2022, according to the US Senate Lobbying Disclosure Database.

They reported they spent $350,000 lobbying the issue for the automaker last quarter, at least $90,000 more than the Novo Nordisk firms have disclosed they collectively paid in a quarter before 2023.

The Eli Lilly companies also reported paying a combined $640,000 in the first half of this year to lobby for Medicare weight loss coverage, the same amount they disclosed for the issue for all of 2022.

The two drugmakers collectively spent more than $7.5 million on these lobbying efforts over the past decade.

Vanderbilt’s Dusetzina said the spending increase might not be enough to bring Democratic and Republican lawmakers together on this issue.

“Changing Medicare policy and passing legislation, even if most people agree with the policy goals, is a huge challenge in today’s political environment,” he said.

Reporting by Patrick Wingrove in New York; Additional reporting by Elissa Welle in New York and Ahmed Aboulenein in Washington; Edited by Caroline Humer and Sharon Singleton

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