SEANC leaders took our fight for affordable prescription drugs to the nation's capital this week, meeting with members of the North Carolina Congressional delegation and Sen. Bernie Sanders.

President Kirk Montgomery, his wife Pam, and Executive Director Ardis Watkins met with Rep. Deborah Ross, Rep. Valerie Foushee, Rep. Wiley Nickel, and members of Sen. Ted Budd's staff on Monday to discuss the outrageous price of GLP-1 drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic.

On Tuesday, they met with Sen. Bernie Sanders, who chairs the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. Sanders recently called on Novo Nordisk to lower its price for Ozempic after a Yale study found that it cost less than $5 to make a month's dose of it.

The State Health Plan ended coverage of GLP-1 drugs for weight loss on April 1. Novo Nordisk is the primary manufacturer of GLP-1 drugs, Ozempic and Wegovy, in plants in Clayton and Durham. Until recently, Novo Nordisk held a "legal monopoly" on them since it held most of the patents to make them. This allowed the company to charge exorbitant prices for them.

The drug costs just $59 a month in Germany and $155 a month in Canada.