'It's extremely frustrating': Diabetics struggle to find their medication amid shortage of Ozempic and its sudden popularity for weight loss
She had been trying to track down Ozempic since late December. Fleming needs the weekly injection to help manage her Type 2 diabetes. She had already missed two shots when her ordeal ended last Friday.
The Food and Drug Administration approved the use of Ozempic, or semaglutide, for people with Type 2 diabetes in 2017. The manufacturer, Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, developed a weight-loss product that contains a higher dose of semaglutide, but it was marketed under the name Wegovy. After demand for Wegovy surged, doctors prescribed Ozempic"off-label" for weight loss.
"We've had to change doses for patients depending on which dose we can track down," Hudec said."We'll call pharmacies, and they'll say, 'Well, we have this one dose in,' and then we'll just change the patient to that dose for a short period of time to at least keep them on the medicine and hope for the best. So it's really been trying to cobble together a plan for patients.
"In general, we don't like to sample medications from the pharmaceutical company, but we do have this emergency approval to sample Ozempic right now because of the shortage," Hudec said."So if we really can't find the medicine, then we will sample some doses to patients to keep them out of trouble." TikTok videos about Ozempic as a weight-loss aid have racked up millions of views. A Variety headline dubbed it Hollywood's"new weight loss drug."
"However, we are currently experiencing intermittent supply disruptions on the Ozempic pen that delivers 0.25 mg and 0.5 mg doses due to the combination of incredible demand coupled with overall global supply constraints," the spokeswoman said in a statement.Hudec said more doses have been available locally this month than in December. Primary doctors have been asked to hold off on prescriptions for weight loss.
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