Manufacturer cuts US shipments
Demand for weight loss injections explodes
5/4/2023 7:54 p.m
Because stars like Elon Musk and Kim Kardashian are promoting the Wegovy fat-away injection, sales are exploding in the USA. The Danish manufacturer of the diabetes drug is now pulling the emergency brake due to supply bottlenecks. New patients have to be patient.
The Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk is temporarily restricting access to its coveted weight loss injection Wegovy for new patients in the USA. The company is struggling with supply bottlenecks due to overwhelming demand and has therefore invested heavily in expanding its range. “We cannot ensure an ever-growing demand, so it is important for us that we ensure continuity of care for the patients who have started treatment,” said CEO Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen.
In order to continue to ensure the supply, the supply of the lower Wegovy starter doses in the USA will be reduced by about 50 percent for “a few months”. Novo Nordisk plans to bring the weight loss syringe to markets outside the United States. The priority is the USA, where the drug has already been introduced, said CFO Karsten Munk Knudsen. More than 100,000 prescriptions for Wegovy are issued there every week. Novo wants to win other contract manufacturers for the drug in order to further expand production.
Sales increase of 211 percent
In the first quarter, Wegovy sales jumped 211 percent at constant exchange rates. Novo recently announced that a second contract manufacturer will start producing the drug. A third manufacturer is due to start production later this year, Jorgensen said. The group also benefited from strong sales of its blockbuster diabetes drug Ozempic, which also causes weight loss, in the first quarter.
In the USA, unlike in Germany, doctors are allowed to prescribe medicines that are not intended for the intended purpose. According to reports, therefore, healthy and even not overweight people were also given Wegovy, which led to the shortages. This also increased concern that the drug might not reach those diabetes patients who depend on it because of the shortage. Celebrities who are said to have lost weight are also to blame for the hype: Tech billionaire Elon Musk or influencer and entrepreneur Kim Kardashian, for example.