What’s it like to get ratioed in real time? Just ask Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen. The Danish executive testified in front of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions yesterday on why prices of the pharma giant’s ultra-popular weight loss and diabetes drugs, Wegovy and Ozempic, are higher in the US than in other countries.

Senator Bernie Sanders wanted to know. As chair of the committee, Sanders told the CEO of the company worth $425 billion to “stop ripping us off” and remarked that surging demand combined with high prices could bankrupt Medicare and increase health insurance premiums.

On the defense: Jørgensen blamed the “complex US healthcare system” for making it difficult for patients to access necessary drugs, claiming that Novo Nordisk saves taxpayers money by alleviating a disease that costs Americans over $400 billion annually.

By the numbers:

• In the US, the list price of Ozempic is $969 a month, while Wegovy’s is $1,350. In Germany, however, Ozempic costs just $59 a month. And in the UK, Wegovy costs $92.
• Novo Nordisk has made ~$50 billion on the two drugs since 2018. Roughly 72% of that revenue comes from US sales.

PBMs took the spotlight

Conversation around pharmacy benefit managers, the drug pricing “middlemen” like CVS Health’s Caremark and UnitedHealth’s OptumRx, dominated the hearing:

• Jørgensen said he was hesitant to lower list prices on Wegovy and Ozempic because, when Novo Nordisk lowered the cost of insulin drug Levemir, PBMs stopped offering the drug. (Lower prices mean that PBMs receive less in rebates from the drug manufacturer.)
• Sanders showed commitments from PBMs to offer the drugs even if Novo Nordisk lowered prices, but Jørgensen made no promises.

Moving forward…Ozempic will likely appear on the list of drugs up for Medicare price negotiations next year. Jørgensen warned if that exercise ends up being price setting rather than a “real negotiation,” it could have an adverse effect on drug innovation.—CC

Caroline Ellison sentenced to two years for FTX fraud. The ex-girlfriend and accomplice of convicted FTX fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 24 months at a minimum security prison by Judge Lewis Kaplan for her role in the collapse of the crypto exchange. Ellison and her lawyers sought no prison time, while prosecutors acknowledged that a lenient sentence was justified after she cooperated with the investigation against SBF and showed remorse for the part she played in defrauding investors. Kaplan praised Ellison’s cooperation but said “there cannot be a get out of jail free card” for a crime of that magnitude. SBF was sentenced to 25 years in March for orchestrating the crypto scam.

Biden addressed the UN for the last time. In his final speech before the United Nations General Assembly yesterday, US President Joe Biden said the world is at an “inflection point,” reaffirmed his support for Ukraine against Russia’s invasion, implored global leaders to confront the climate crisis, and warned against a wider war in the Middle East as Israel continues to launch strikes on Hezbollah in Lebanon. Biden also cited his decision to step away from this year’s presidential race as an example for leaders to follow. “Some things are more important than staying in power,” he said.

Visa was sued by the Justice Department for antitrust violations. The DOJ alleged in a complaint filed in Manhattan federal court yesterday that the payments giant is illegally monopolizing the debit card market by penalizing merchants who try to use alternatives, Bloomberg reported. Per the complaint, Visa allegedly uses anti-competitive pricing to force merchants to route transactions through its network or incur harsh penalties. The DOJ says Visa handles 60% of US debit transactions and collects $7 billion in yearly fees. The suit is the result of a yearslong investigation by the Justice Department into Visa’s business practices.—AE

US ports are bracing for a tempest, but the ominous choppiness is in the negotiating room. Dock workers on the East and Gulf Coasts are preparing to walk off the job if their union can’t negotiate a new contract with shipping companies by October 1, threatening a throwback to pandemic-era supply chain bottlenecks.

The International Longshoremen’s Association union and the United States Maritime Alliance, the trade organization representing port operators, remain oceans apart in their talks. The main sticking points are worker pay and plans to automate certain container operations.

The union warns that up to 45,000 port workers could strike. The labor stoppages would disrupt major ports that handle 60% of US shipping traffic, per Oxford Economics.

• Five of North America’s 10 busiest ports would be impacted by a strike, straining time-sensitive supply chains for medicine, car parts, and perishable foods.
• JPMorgan analysts say a work stoppage could cause $5 billion in economic damage per day.

While some businesses have been diverting shipments to the West Coast, analysts say that weeks of shipping delays would be inevitable.

Zoom out: Dock delays might lead to a manufacturing slowdown, shortages, and accelerated inflation—all with political ramifications for the November election. The US Department of Labor could intervene to help speed up negotiations to avert a strike.—SK

Fans are ripping apart Marques Brownlee’s new app, and he can’t even wear the “they don’t make statues of critics” shirt.

Brownlee, the popular tech reviewer best known as MKBHD on YouTube, released a digital wallpaper app this week called Panels following years of comments on his videos complimenting the high-quality backgrounds on his devices.

Then things went south. Fans were upset at the app’s Panels Plus subscription cost ($12/month or $50/year) for high-quality, downloadable images from digital artists—which is much higher than similar apps. Users can also watch two ads to download one standard-quality wallpaper, a significant downgrade from the 4K paid versions.

Other complaints included:

• The app asks for permission on iOS to track your activity on other websites. Brownlee, posting his way through the pushback, said he’s working on a fix.
• Brownlee said artists can use AI to generate wallpapers for the app.
• An X user named AppleLeaker also pointed out that the app appears to be a repackaged wallpaper app from 2021, which Brownlee denied.

Bottom line: With his 19.5 million YouTube subscribers, Brownlee’s influence has been credited with jumpstarting the comeuppance of tech flops like the Humane AI pin. Now, fans are wondering why the tech reviewer is peddling a product that wouldn’t even pass his own standards.—MM

In a blog post that will one day be quoted on screen at the beginning of a documentary debuting at the Kepler-45b Film Festival about the end of human civilization on Earth, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman predicted that we could have superintelligence “in a few thousand days (!).” Superintelligence, aka AI that’s far smarter than even the smartest people, has long been the subject of science fiction. But now, AI’s thinker-in-chief says it’s achievable within a decade or two. Altman acknowledged that there are “downsides” to what he calls the “Intelligence Age,” but argued the potential benefits to society far outstrip the harms. In related news, Altman recently appeared on a podcast to discuss how much he likes psychedelics.—AE