Severely obese Danes will have a new opportunity to lose weight when the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly launches the diabetes and weight loss drug Mounjaro in Denmark next week.
But they will initially have to pay the full price for the treatment themselves, because they are not eligible for subsidies.
The price will be 2237 kroner for a month’s treatment with 5 milligram doses, which will suit most people’s needs.
However, Eli Lilly’s managing director in the Nordics, Daniel Lucas, would like to engage in dialogue with the authorities so that the medicine may eventually become eligible for subsidies.
– We believe that we are coming up with an important supplement to what is on the market in Denmark today. Studies have shown that we have an effective and attractive product, and now it is up to us to tell the doctors about what Mounjaro can do and how to get the best course of treatment, he says.
Mounjaro was approved for the treatment of diabetes 2 in Europe as early as 2022, and later the approval was also extended to include the treatment of weight loss.
Still, it took time before Eli Lilly made the medicine available in Denmark.
– We wanted to be sure that we could deliver Mounjaro to the patients who are starting treatment, and therefore we have launched it gradually in Europe.
– We started in Spain, Great Britain, Germany and Poland, and now we have reached the Nordic countries, says Daniel Lucas.
He is aware that it causes a stir when Eli Lilly goes into direct competition with Novo Nordisk on the rival’s own home turf.
– Seen from the outside, it is perhaps something special that we are now launching Mounjaro on Novo Nordisk’s home turf. But we have already been present in Denmark for almost 50 years, and for us it is not about defeating Novo Nordisk.
– It’s about defeating severe obesity, and it doesn’t matter whether it happens in Denmark or elsewhere in the world.
You can only get Mounjaro on prescription for the treatment of weight loss if you have a so-called Body Mass Index (BMI) of 30 or more.
If you have a BMI of between 27 and 30 and at the same time have at least one weight-related risk factor such as a cardiovascular disease or diabetes 2, the doctor can also issue a prescription.
/ritzau/
Source: www.kristeligt-dagblad.dk
