Jenny Cherian
There are 11 million Canadians who live with diabetes, and it's a number that increases by 200,000 new cases each year. Healthcare professionals know Ozempic as a medication that treats type 2 diabetes by helping lower and regulate the body's blood sugar levels.
However, another effect the drug produces is weight loss, which is a fad that's come into mainstream society with numerous celebrities like Khloé Kardashian, Amy Schumer, Rosie O'Donnell, and even Elon Musk being vocal about Ozempics role in their success with losing weight.
Novo Nordisk, the company that produces the drug, has seen a 328% increase in their share price over the last 5 years and a 29% increase in sales over the first six months of 2023.
The communications team at Novo Nordisk explained that they anticipate the disruption as temporary. Director of Communications Kate Hanna explained that the 0.25 mg, 0.5 mg pen of Ozempic is currently available for patients with type 2 diabetes across Canada.
However, they're experiencing a temporary supply disruption with the Ozempic 1 mg pen due to what she identified as "The combination of overall global supply constraints coupled with increased demand."
She explained that the company is investing heavily in resources that will help them keep up with the demand, but also that it's not a short-term play.
"In the short term, we encourage patients to limit refill prescriptions to a 30-day supply and contact their pharmacy ahead of running out of their current supply. Anyone concerned with continuity of treatment should contact their healthcare provider."
The key concern is that the rising demand for the drug has made it difficult for individuals needing the medication to treat their diabetes.
On August 18th, Diabetes Canada released a report titled "Response to the Anticipated Ozempic Supply Disruption." In that report, they highlighted that no concerns with supply shortages had been reported, and when I reached out in late September, that claim was still the same.
Halton Healthcare echoed this by saying, "Although there are times when the availability of certain medications may be temporarily reduced for various reasons, we work with our partners province-wide to manage these supply chain issues and ensure that patient care is not compromised."
I needed to go to the front lines to learn more about who is experiencing this and where. So I contacted Dr. Harpreet Bajaj, Endocrinologist and Medical Director at LMC Healthcare, who is also the founding chairman of STOP Diabetes Foundation.
"Dr. Bajaj, How has the usage of Ozempic evolved over the last five years?"
His response was detailed, but the key takeaways were as follows:
"In November 2021, a higher dose semaglutide injection of 2.4 mg weekly (Wegovy) was approved by Health Canada (HC) as an adjunct to a reduced-calorie diet and increased physical activity for chronic weight management in adult patients without diabetes," he said.
"Similar to the evolving HC approval and research trial evidence, the usage of Ozempic has evolved from being a 3rd/4th choice diabetes medication in 2018 to a much earlier and widespread use in diabetes, pre-diabetes and more recently in obesity without diabetes."
I asked, "Has this impacted your services at all yet?"
He stated, "The shortage of Ozempic 1 mg dose pen has definitely impacted diabetes care plans and management. I have had to alter my advice to patients who may benefit from the higher dose pen by either not increasing the dose beyond 0.5 mg weekly or suggesting to take the 0.5 mg dose twice or, in some cases to change completely from Ozempic to an alternate diabetes medication in the same class of treatments as Ozempic i.e. Oral semaglutide (Rybelsus) or dulaglutide (Trulicity) once-weekly injection."
There appears to be a battle between perspectives on this issue. It seems that the entities have broader roles and responsibilities that detach them from the urgency. Whereas someone like Dr. Bajaj, who has direct responsibility for patient well-being and must make immediate adjustments to treatment plans based on medication availability, is in a much tighter spot.
To solidify this claim, we contacted Jenny Cherian, the owner of Lifecare Rx Pharmacy in Oakville. Cherian gave us a lot of frontline insight on the issue. Notably, she outlined:
"In some cases, Pharmacists need to contact physicians to switch to other alternatives. The other downside is both Ozempic pens are also of the same price, and so patients end up paying more as they would have to use more pens to get the same dosage."
"All this has caused so much additional stress on both patients, pharmacists and physicians."
