Weight loss medication (image used under license from shutterstock.com)

Anthony DeHart

North Carolina State Treasurer Dale Folwell was the guest on this week’s edition of “Carolina Newsmakers,” with Don Curtis, where he gave an update on the state health and pension plans.

Folwell says the state health plan continues to be “under siege” from what he calls a “cartel of healthcare providers,” who are consolidating power, decreasing competition, and increasing prices.

“The Webster’s Dictionary defines a cartel as an association which is formed to restrict competition or raise prices,” Folwell said. “That’s exactly what we’re seeing with healthcare in the state.”

Folwell says this is what is happening in the prescription drug industry and points to the State Health Plan’s recent struggles with drug manufacturers over the price of GLP-1 weight loss medications such as Wegovy as an example of this behavior.

He says that Wegovy alone was costing the plan $170 million to serve just 22,000 patients.

“We’re not questioning whether these weight loss drugs work; we’re questioning what we’re having to pay for them,” Folwell said. “And recent reports show that this drug costs somewhere between $5 and $10 to produce, [and] it can sell [for] over $1,000 in North Carolina.”

Folwell says this markup is unreasonable, especially as drugmaker Novo Nordisk sells the same medication in their home country of Denmark for significantly less.

“They sell it to people in their home country for about $250,” Folwell said. “I think those that teach, protect, and serve deserve to pay the same low cost as the people in their home country do.”

The State Health Plan Board of Trustees voted in January to end all coverage of popular weight-loss drugs such as Wegovy and Saxenda starting April 1, citing out-of-control costs and high prices.

You can listen to the full conversation here.