Diabetic affected person Stephen Bonner says folks with diabetes are struggling to get the medicine they want due to a nationwide scarcity.
“That is life or loss of life,” mentioned Bonner.
Bonner says he’s been ready for his Kind 2 diabetic medicine to be refilled.
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“The supervisor got here again and mentioned it’s on backlog,” Bonner mentioned.
He’s speaking concerning the widespread drug Ozempic, an injectable that treats Kind 2 diabetes by regulating a affected person’s blood sugar.
“With out that, I received’t reside,” he mentioned.
A number of metro space pharmacies say the drug is on backlog, in each .25mg and a pair of mg kinds.
The producer of the drug says the backlog is because of non-diabetic sufferers being prescribed the medicine for weight reduction.
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Medical professionals say there’s been a rise in prescriptions being written to assist with weight reduction after a Tik Tok concerning the drug’s advantages went viral.
“I feel that’s completely unsuitable, for these medical doctors to prescribe that for weight reduction and use it up for individuals who actually direly want it,” Bonner mentioned.
Bonner says the drug permits him to take only one shot of Ozempic every week in comparison with 4 pictures of insulin day by day. The Georgia Division of Well being experiences that simply over a million Georgians live with diabetes.
Novo Nordisk, the corporate that manufactures Ozempic, mentioned in an announcement on their web site that they don’t agree with the drug getting used for weight reduction remedy.
Nonetheless, the Federal Drug Administration permits medical doctors to nonetheless prescribe the drug for weight reduction underneath a follow known as “off label.” It means sure sure FDA-approved medication can be utilized for medical wants apart from the unique intent of the medicine.
Novo Nordisk says they’re ramping up manufacturing to have the drug again on the cabinets earlier than the top of the yr.
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The corporate says there are not any generic types of this drug.
The pharmaceutical firm that owns Ozempic additionally produces an analogous diabetic known as Wegovy. Wegovy was authorised by the FDA for use as a weight reduction drug. Novo Nordisk says this drug can also be low on provide.
“What are diabetics to do after they run out of this drug, and so they need to go backwards and begin taking all of those pictures once more?” Bonner requested.
Novo Nordisk launched the next assertion to Channel 2 Motion Information:
“We’re at the moment experiencing intermittent provide disruptions on varied doses of Ozempic® as a result of mixture of unimaginable demand coupled with general world provide constraints. Whereas product continues to be manufactured and shipped, sufferers in some areas of the nation will expertise delays. We’re making each brief and long-term investments to resolve for these non permanent challenges. Anybody involved with continuity of remedy ought to contact their healthcare supplier.”
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