Novo Nordisk’s major rival Sanofi might feel compelled to adopt an even sharper pricing strategy in the future after pharmacy benefit manager CVS Health decided to exclude the French pharma group’s top-seller Lantus from its list of preferred drugs for 2017.

That is the assessment from DNB analyst Rune Majlund Dahl.

Aside from Lantus, the world’s top-selling insulin, long-acting insulin Toujeo has also been cut from the list. Instead, Eli Lilly’s biosimilar copy-cat of Lantus, which will be marketed as Basaglar later this year, has been added to the alternatives that diabetes patients covered by CVS can opt for.

“There are no changes for Novo Nordisk as regards CVS Health’s coverage, but we see the possibility of a negative effect in terms of pricing, as this could possibly drive Sanofi to become even more aggressive when it comes to pricing in the future,” Rune Majlund Dahl writes in a note.

Pressure on Novo’s share

For that reason he also believes CVS’ decision could weigh down on Novo Nordisk’s share price. CVS itself has said that it anticipates a future where biosimilars will play a greater role.

“We anticipate significant savings for many clients and members, as the removal of higher cost products will enable near-term value, with additional future opportunities for savings resulting from market competition as more new products are launched,” CVS writes in its update.

Novo’s share price fell by 2.7 percent on Tuesday following the announcement, and as of Wednesday 3:30 PM CET it is down by another 1.5 percent to DKK 365. Sanofi’s share dropped by 3.1 percent Tuesday, losing another 1.2 as of noon Wednesday.

Novo’s price dip is likely also due to news from the other major PBM in the US, Express Scripts, who has once again opted to exclude the Danish pharma group’s top-seller Victoza from its list of preferred drugs for 2017. That has been the case for a number of years now.

 Novo Nordisk misses US coverage again 

 Nordea: Victoza might make the Express Scripts list 

- translated by Martin Havtorn Petersen

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