When pharma CEOs go on a ‘listening tour’

There was a time when Novo Nordisk, despite its billions in annual revenue, slipped beneath the radar when the subject was anti-pharma scorn. Then came escalating angst over the rising cost of insulin, which happens to be a banner Novo product, and now CEO Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen has embarked on a self-described listening tour to address the outrage.

Speaking to STAT’s Ed Silverman, Jorgensen described the effort as a sign of his “desperation.” He’s read countless stories about patients struggling to pay for their insulin and listened to politicians shame his company as heartless profiteers. “And I compare that with the reality, where we have seen over the last five years that our prices have gone down,” Jorgensen said. “Our net price — what we get — is decreasing rapidly.”

The disconnect, he acknowledged, is complicated. And it’s not merely a matter of lowering list prices.

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