The Diabetes Price War Claims Casualties

Through no fault of their own, 1,000 people just became victims of a drug-price war mostly taking place on another continent.

Danish pharma giant Novo Nordisk announced Thursday it is cutting 1,000 jobs (about half of them in Denmark), after last month slashing growth forecasts for 2016, citing lower U.S. prices for diabetes drugs. These will likely not be the last victims, either -- Novo and competitors such as Sanofi and Eli Lilly will likely have to keep tightening their belts as prices and profit margins fall.

Diabetes is fertile ground for a drug-price fight. It's a $40 billion-plus market in the U.S., with many big firms looking to protect billion-dollar franchises. Each of the many medicines treating diabetes has multiple strong competitors. And all the customers want to pay less.