Said, Report analyst T Snitz Esq "the media has this so wrong. The problem here isn't a drug shortage. The problem is that fat people are multiplying like portly overweight rabbits. They're out of control!"
I'm sorry. That was very very bad.
The Ozempic shortage is getting worse
Novo Nordisk says the drug will be hard to get for the rest of this year
By Bruce Gil, Quart Media
PublishedYesterday
Novo Nordisk said on Monday that a shortage of its popular diabetes drug Ozempic is expected to get worse this year.
“The supply situation for the lower strengths of Ozempic, 0.25 mg and 0.5 mg, has deteriorated with intermittent shortages for all strengths expected into Q4 2024,” the Danish pharma giant said a note published by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the health regulator the European Union.
The company said that the shortage is due to soaring demand of GLP-1 drugs and “capacity constraints” at some of its manufacturing sites.
“Intermittent shortages are expected into the Q4, however we continue to expand our global production capacity, which has been running 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” a Novo Nordisk spokesperson told Quartz. “We will invest invest DKK 45 billion ($6.7 billion) in capital expenditures this year, compared to DKK 25 billion ($3.7 billion) in 2023.”
The company spokesperson added that the update, which was agreed with the EMA earlier this summer, was posted this week after individual member states were notified first, and that not all member states may face supply shortages.
Ozempic belongs to a class of treatments known as GLP-1 medications, which work by mimicking a hormone that regulates blood sugar levels and suppresses appetite. These drugs have become popular in the past few years for their weight loss side effects.
In the United States and in some European countries Ozempic is sold as Wegovy for weight loss.
Novo Nordisk recommends that healthcare professionals limit treatment initiation of new patients on Ozempic until the supply situation improves, which they expect will improve in September 2024.
In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) continues to list various doses of Ozempic and Wegovy in its drug shortage database. Currently, only the 0.25 mg starter dose of Wegovy is noted as being in limited supply, with the duration of the shortage yet to be determined.
On its website, Novo Nordisk said it is still restricting shipments of this dose of Wegovy to ensure continuity of care for patients already on the drug.
Its rival Eli Lilly, which produces competing GLP-1 treatments, announced last week that it is selling certain doses of its weight loss drug Zepbound in single-dose vials.
Eli Lilly said it launched a single-dose vial option for Zepbound in an effort to meet soaring demand of the treatment.
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