Making Sense of the Novo Nordisk-Walmart Partnership to Sell Some Discounted Insulin Analogues

On June 29, 2021, Walmart Inc. and the American business unit of Novo Nordisk A/S (which is based just outside of Princeton, New Jersey known as Novo Nordisk Inc.) dropped what was intended to be a news bombshell coming just as the ADA Scientific Sessions was coming to a close. In fact, the insulin makers had hardly any big news coming from the ADA Scientific Sessions themselves this year or for the past several years (about the biggest news was from 2018 when, Novo Nordiskacquired a UK-based company known as Ziylo to use its technology to try and develop glucose-responsive insulin, but that still has a long while before it is ready for commercialization ... if ever), because most have shifted R&D towards GLP-1 inhibitors for T2D, and regularly get assaulted over runaway prices, so why not make some headlines by doing something intended to capture press attention of a captive audience?!In essence, the pharmacies in Walmart ' s retail stores will start selling a version of Novo Nordisk ' s slightly older (and now out-of-patent, more on that in a minute) rapid-acting insulin analogue branded as Novolog which they will call Relion Novolog in the U.S. for $72.88 per vial and the company ' s 5-pack of insulin pens branded as FlexPens for $85.88. See the press release from WalmartHEREhttps://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210629005683/en/Walmart-Revolutionizes-Insulin-Access-Affordability-for-Patients-With-Diabetes-With-the-Launch-of-the-First-and-Only-Private-Brand...
Source: Scott's Web Log - Category: Endocrinology Tags: Aspart Novo Nordisk Novolog Walmart Source Type: blogs