Novo Nordisk, maker of the weight-loss drug Wegovy, said it would limit supply of starter doses as demand outpaces the company’s manufacturing capacity.
The supply interruptions aren’t expected to affect higher
doses of the medicine for people who already take the drug, the company said in
a statement posted Thursday on its Wegovy
website. Novo Nordisk said it anticipates that many people will have
trouble filling prescriptions at the lower initial doses through September.
The US Food and Drug Administration
approved Wegovy for chronic weight management for people with a body mass index
of 30 or more, or 27 or more for people with a weight-related condition like high
blood pressure. It and sister drug Ozempic, which is approved for type 2
diabetes, have soared in popularity, sweeping across social media sites and
garnering mentions at the Oscars and on “Saturday Night Live.”
“With rising rates of obesity, there
is an increased demand” for drugs like Wegovy, said Dr. Priya Jaisinghani, an
endocrinologist and obesity medicine specialist at NYU Langone Health. She said
that she hasn’t had issues filling prescriptions of Wegovy recently but that
she had in the past.
Wegovy is one of the brand names for
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 slow the passage of food through
the gut. The FDA approved semaglutide for diabetes as Ozempic in 2017 and for
weight loss as Wegovy in 2021. But Wegovy soon went into shortage amid
production problems, and some supply problems have continued.
People who take Wegovy for weight loss
must continue to use it to maintain the effects; dropped pounds can return when
they stop.
Celebrities such as Chelsea Handler
and Elon Musk have talked about using semaglutide or Wegovy. The Hollywood
connection has been so strong that Novo Nordisk included in its “Frequently
Asked Questions” section an inquiry about why celebrities can get Wegovy when
it is unavailable for others. The drugmaker noted that it can’t control which
specific people receive its medicines but said “we reinforce who our medicines
are intended to treat based on their clinical trials and FDA-approved
indications.”
nterest is so high, Novo Nordisk said,
that it will pause some promotion of Wegovy “to avoid stimulating further
demand.”
Wegovy is designed to be taken once a
week by self-injection. Patients start on the lowest dose, 0.25 milligrams, and
move up to the maintenance dose, 2.4 milligrams, over the course of 16 weeks.
The lowest three doses are the ones Novo Nordisk says will have limited supply.
This gradual dosage increase is
designed to limit gastrointestinal side effects like nausea, vomiting and
diarrhea.
“They are very challenging to take,”
said Dr. Ethan Weiss, a preventional cardiologist at the University of
California San Francisco and entrepreneur-in-residence at venture capital firm
Third Rock. Still, he notes, “they are a really valuable option for those who
have struggled and don’t want or are not eligible for surgery.”
Novo Nordisk said hundreds of
thousands of people in the US are on Wegovy, and it noted that an additional
contract manufacturer recently started production to help increase supply. In
the meantime, it recommends that people currently taking Wegovy contact their
pharmacy about refills at least a week or two earlier than normal, and try
multiple pharmacies if the first one doesn’t have the drug. It also suggests
that health-care providers consider the potential supply disruptions 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, dosages, prescribing
information and paces of titrating up.
Ozempic has had supply issues as well
for people with diabetes, even prompting British Columbia to move to restrict
its sale amid a surge in prescriptions, many from Americans seeking the drug
across the border.
There have also been supply
constraints on a similar medicine made by Eli Lilly, Mounjaro, which is
approved only for diabetes, Jaisinghani said.
She recommended against seeking
weight-loss drugs through other avenues like medical tourism and compounding
pharmacies.
“It’s very important to speak to your
doctor regarding your plan on how and where you are obtaining medications to
make sure they are the FDA-approved formulation and safe for use,” she said.
No comments:
Post a Comment