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May maybe fair 5, 2023 — The on-again, off-again saga of Wegovy provide issues for U.S. patients seeking to lose weight is back.
Novo Nordisk, the corporate that manufactures and markets semaglutide for weight loss as Wegovy and for treating form 2 diabetes as Ozempic, launched Thursday that the corporate will only be in a map to “provide restricted quantities of 0.25 mg, 0.5 mg, and 1 mg dose strengths [of Wegovy] to wholesalers for distribution to retail pharmacies” within the US. This methodology that the anticipated provide “won’t meet anticipated affected person ask,” a self-discipline the corporate expects to continue “by draw of September.”
The update added that the bottleneck is brought on by provide failing to meet U.S. ask, even though the announcement additionally assured patients already the utilize of the drug and taking higher weekly dosages that their provide could quiet now not be affected.
“We scheme now not currently predict provide interruptions of the 1.7 mg and a pair of.4 mg dose strengths of Wegovy,” the announcement acknowledged.
Déjà Vu All Over All over again
If this provide shortage appears to be like fancy déjà vu, that’s as a result of the U.S. provide of Wegovy additionally fell short at some level of essential of 2022. On the opposite hand, by December 2022 and as as we command as February 2023, statements from Novo Nordisk made it sound fancy the provision shortages had been coming to an cease. The corporate’s announcement this day displays that optimism became misplaced.
A shortage of doses for 0.25 mg, 0.5 mg, and 1 mg will largely gain an designate on of us starting up on Wegovy. To steer clear of or minimize facet effects, especially gastrointestinal effects, when patients originate therapy with semaglutide or any diverse an identical drug, they originate on the lowest dose and frequently work up to a upkeep dose, which for Wegovy could even be up to 2.4 mg/week.
The corporate’s announcement acknowledged this impact, pronouncing effectively being care providers could quiet “preserve in mind the restricted provide of the 0.25 mg, 0.5 mg and 1 mg dose strengths of Wegovy as section of their decision-making when initiating unique patients on therapy, recognizing the likelihood of disruption in care.”
Novo Nordisk’s announcement additionally entreated providers and patients to steer clear of the utilize of the semaglutide formula designed for treating form 2 diabetes, Ozempic, as a work-round. The express highlighted that Wegovy and Ozempic “are now not interchangeable.”
This Wegovy shortage redux could advised a return to the workarounds devised by U.S. weight loss clinics closing yr.
One of those workarounds entails starting up patients on a particular drug for weight loss, such as liraglutide (Saxenda), and then crossing the affected person over to an readily accessible, higher-dose formula of Wegovy as soon as the early half is total.
