Diabetes patients frustrated as popularity of Ozempic and Trulicity limits supply
NEW YORK - Many people looking to lose weight are turning to Ozempic and similar drugs.
The issue is that those medicines are also used by people with diabetes.
One Long Island man who has Type 2 diabetes said he hasn't been able to fill his prescription for more than a month now. Several years ago, Kurt Reidel weighed 425 pounds. He got weight loss surgery and was put on the drug Trulicity to bring his diabetes under control. He takes it weekly.
"It helps brings your sugar down and helps with your A1C," Riedel said. "If you have a high A1C, you do damage to your heart."
That potential damage has been weighing on him for more than a month. That's how long he's been waiting on a refill at his local pharmacy.
"They say 'Kurt, it's backordered. We don't know when it's coming in,'" he said. "I do check my sugar... now that I don't have my meds, I've been checking it a lot more."
He says he now checks his sugar twice a day.
"If you don't, you'll end up in the hospital," he said.
He said the pharmacy told him there are 20 patients in the same boat.
Trulicity is classified as one of the GLP1 drugs, along with the well-known Ozempic, which a growing number of people are turning to solely for weight loss purposes.
Dr. Prya Jaisinghani, endocrinologist and obesity medicine specialist at NYU Langone Health, said the shortages have been an issue for her patients on and off for more than a year. She encourages them to plan around it.
"We want to avoid short term adverse effects such as high blood pressure, which can sometimes lead to hospitalizations," she said.
Doctors we spoke with said they are seeing shortages across the Tri-State Area, and across the country.
"There's a lot of misinformation out there," Dr. Bruce Y. Lee of CUNY School of Public Health said. "For those taking it who don't have indication of diabetes, this shouldn't be a substitute for other types of weight loss measures."
"Please think of the diabetic who doesn't have it right now, or the kid that needs it that can't get it," Riedel said.
The company that manufactures Ozempic told us "In the U.S., we cannot control which specific pharmacies or patients receive Ozempic as we distribute our products to wholesalers... We are expanding our production."
A spokesperson added the company asks doctors to prescribe medicines consistent with FDA guidelines.
The company that makes Trulicity gave us the following statement:
Due to the ongoing dynamic demand for incretin products, we anticipate intermittent backorders on all doses of Trulicity continuing through early 2024. We recognize this situation may cause a disruption in people's treatment regimens and we are moving with urgency to address it. If anyone experiences difficulty in getting their prescription filled, they should contact their healthcare provider who can assist with their treatment plan.
We remain committed to supplying Trulicity for people 10 years of age and older with type 2 diabetes and continue to invest and add manufacturing and supply capacity around the world.
We are managing production of our incretins based on anticipated demand and are in regular contact with the FDA on this topic. The FDA's website linked here reflects current supply status for Trulicity.