FILE PHOTO: The logo of Danish multinational pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk is pictured on the facade of a production plant in Chartres, north-central France, April 21, 2016. REUTERS/Guillaume Souvant
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Novo Nordisk’s new diabetes pill, Rybelsus, will be covered by Express Scripts Holding Co, one of the largest U.S. pharmacy benefit managers, the Danish drugmaker said on Friday.
Pharmacy benefit managers act as middlemen in the drug supply chain, and negotiate discounts on drugs on behalf of health insurers.
Depending on the discounts drugmakers are willing to provide, pharmacy benefits managers make decisions about which drugs to include in coverage plans.
Novo Nordisk declined to comment on what discounts it had offered.
The news, first reported by Danish daily Børsen on Friday, was confirmed to Reuters by a Novo Nordisk spokesman.
Reporting by Stine Jacobsen; editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Jason Neely