CNN
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Novo Nordisk, maker of the weight-loss drug Wegovy, said it would limit the supply of initial doses as demand exceeds the company’s manufacturing capacity.
Supply interruptions are not expected to affect higher doses of the drug for people already taking it, the company said in a statement published Thursday on its Wegovy website. Novo Nordisk said it anticipates many people will have trouble filling prescriptions with the lower starting doses through September.
The US Food and Drug Administration approved Wegovy for chronic weight management in people with a body mass index of 30 or more, or 27 or more for people with a weight-related condition, such as blood pressure high. It and the sister drug Ozempic, which is approved for type 2 diabetes, have skyrocketed in popularity, taking social media by storm and garnering mentions at the Oscars and on “Saturday Night Live.”
“With rising obesity rates, there is increased demand” for drugs like Wegovy, said Dr. Priya Jaisinghani, an endocrinologist and specialist in obesity medicine at NYU Langone Health. She said she hasn’t had a problem filling Wegovy prescriptions recently, but that she had in the past.
Wegovy is one brand name of semaglutide, which is part of a class of drugs that mimic the effects of an appetite-regulating hormone called GLP-1. They stimulate the release of insulin, which helps lower blood sugar and slows the passage of food through the intestine. The FDA approved semaglutide for diabetes as Ozempic in 2017 and for weight loss as Wegovy in 2021. But Wegovy soon fell into short supply amid production problems, and some supply issues have continued.
People taking Wegovy for weight loss must continue to use it to maintain the effects; lost pounds can come back when you stop.
Celebrities like Chelsea Handler and Elon Musk have spoken about using semaglutide or Wegovy. The connection to Hollywood has been so strong that Novo Nordisk included in their “FAQ” section a question about why celebrities can get Wegovy when it’s not available to others. The drugmaker noted that it can’t control which specific people receive its drugs, but said that it “reinforces who should treat our drugs based on their clinical trials and FDA-approved indications.”
Interest is so high, Novo Nordisk said, that it will halt some Wegovy promotions “to avoid stimulating further demand.”
Wegovy is designed to be administered once a week by self-injection. Patients start on the lowest dose, 0.25 milligrams, and progress to the maintenance dose, 2.4 milligrams, over the course of 16 weeks. The three lowest doses are the ones that Novo Nordisk says will be in limited supply.
This gradual increase in dosage is designed to limit gastrointestinal side effects such as nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.
“They are very difficult to take,” said Dr. Ethan Weiss, a preventive cardiologist at the University of California, San Francisco and an entrepreneur-in-residence at the venture capital firm Third Rock. Still, he notes, “they’re a really valuable option for those who have had problems and don’t want or aren’t eligible for surgery.”
Novo Nordisk said hundreds of thousands of people in the US use Wegovy, noting that an additional contract manufacturer recently began production to help increase supply. In the meantime, he recommends that people currently taking Wegovy contact their pharmacy about refills at least a week or two earlier than normal, and try several pharmacies if the first one doesn’t have the drug. It also suggests that healthcare providers consider potential supply interruptions when considering whether to start new patients on Wegovy.
Although Ozempic and Wegovy contain the same key ingredient, Novo Nordisk noted that “the products are not interchangeable”; they have different indications, doses, prescribing information, and titration rates.
Ozempic has also had supply problems for people with diabetes, even prompting British Columbia to take action to restrict its sale amid a spike in prescriptions, many of Americans seeking the drug across the border.
There have also been restrictions on the supply of a similar drug made by Eli Lilly, Mounjaro, which is approved only for diabetes, Jaisinghani said.
She recommended against seeking weight-loss drugs through other avenues such as medical tourism and compounding pharmacies.
“It is very important to talk to your doctor about your plan about how and where you will get your medications to make sure they have the FDA-approved formulation and are safe for you to use,” he said.
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