State Health Plan is asking for the public’s help in lowering the cost of weight loss medications

The North Carolina State Health Plan is asking the public for help in lowering the cost of weight-loss medications, making a formal request for ideas from the market on Monday.

“We are hopeful that someone or some company will help us find an affordable way to offer these medications to our members,” said state Treasurer Dale Folwell, chairman of the health care plan’s board and whose office oversees the plan, in a statement.

Approximately 740,000 state employees and their family members receive their health care through the State Health Plan. Plan officials have said that while only 23,000 State Health Plan members use the drugs, they are so expensive that continued coverage — and a projected increase in demand — would have forced the plan to double monthly premiums for many members.

Planned spending on the two drugs is expected to exceed $170 million by 2024, rising to more than $1 billion over the next six years, Folwell said.

Folwell took aim at Novo Nordisk, which makes Wegovy and Saxenda, suggesting the company and other manufacturers are charging too much. Folwell says the State Health Plan has sought lower prices in negotiations with the Danish drug manufacturer. But those conversations have been unproductive, Folwell said.

“We are committed to providing these medications to the plan members who need them most,” Folwell said. “All we ask is to be treated fairly and not for price increases by the manufacturers.”

Representatives for Novo Nordisk did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday.

Earlier this month, the company told WRAL that it had made several negotiating offers to government officials. “We are surprised and disappointed that North Carolina has rejected multiple, workable options presented to them since the last board meeting in January,” the company said at the time. “Instead, State Health Plan officials are abandoning their obligation to employees living with the chronic disease of obesity and denying coverage for safe and effective treatments. Denying patients insurance coverage for important and effective FDA-approved treatments is simply irresponsible.”

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