United States: Two further doses of the weight- loss medicine Wegovy are now available in the United States. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) streamlined its list of medicine shortages and showed that some more doses of Wegovy, which is made by Novo Nordisk, are still limited. This medicine, along with another called Ozempic, has been hard to find since early 2022.
Limited Availability of Smallest Dose Remains
The FDA’s website says the smallest dose of Wegovy, 0.25 milligrams (mg), is still limited, but all the other doses can now be found. As for Ozempic, all its doses are available in the U.S. Novo Nordisk announced that four out of five Wegovy doses are available, but they will keep controlling the shipments of the smallest dose.
Increasing Demand and Production Challenges
Hereby the surging demands for the therapies such as Wegovy and Ozempic has led the Danish drugmaker to ramp up supply. Eli Lilly which makes rival drugs Mounjaro and Zepbound has invested the billions of the dollars in almost boosting their production of these drugs.
As reported by Reuters, although last week all the doses of Lilly’s weight loss drug Zepbound and the diabetes drug Mounjaro were listed as available on the drug shortages list.
Initially it was developed for the diabetes, GLP-1 therapies have shown to reduce weight by up to 20% in the trials and some analysts estimate that the market somehow is for these therapies could hit USD 150 billion in revenue by the early 2030s.
Global Pricing and Supply Issues
In most developed countries, like Denmark, the government negotiates lower drug prices for their citizens, so they pay much less than in the United States. However, when a drug is both effective and expensive, drug companies can push for higher prices. Novo Nordisk did this with their drug Ozempic, which led to financial strain on Denmark’s health system.
Denmark’s public health system had been covering Ozempic for diabetes treatment for years. But in 2022, doctors also started prescribing it for weight loss, which quickly used up a lot of the country’s health budget. Now, many countries are facing challenges on how to manage the costs of Ozempic and similar drugs, especially when they are used for weight loss. The high prices paid in the U.S. influence how drug companies negotiate prices with other countries
Ongoing Challenges in Healthcare
“There are changes month to month in our clinic in terms of the supply, coverage, which drug is available,” said Michael Blaha, director of clinical research for the Johns Hopkins Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease. He said that doctors and patients were “playing a constant game of prior authorization and appeals.”
