Limited availability of the diabetes and popular weight loss drug Ozempic continues. The FAMHP indicates that the drug is expected to remain in short supply until the end of February 2025.
Demand for Ozempic has exploded in 2023 because it also works as a means of weight loss in non-diabetics. Manufacturer Novo Nordisk cannot keep up with demand. The Minister of Public Health, Frank Vandenbroucke, even had to intervene: doctors and pharmacists must reserve it for patients with type 2 diabetes or with a BMI that is too high.
This limited availability appears to continue. This not only concerns Ozempic, but all GLP1 analogues, according to the latest information. These are drugs similar to Ozempic. One of these drugs – Bydureon – will also leave the market at the end of this year.
On the website of the Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products (FAMHP), Ozempic still appears on the list of medicines whose non-availability is described as “critical”. This means that there are no alternatives available.
Today, 34 references still appear on this list of critically unavailable drugs. They are either limited in availability, commercially discontinued or temporarily unavailable. In addition to Ozempic, certain antidepressants (Redomex and Nortrilen) still appear there, as well as certain thrombolytics. At the end of 2021, there was an acute shortage, and the FAMHP had to control its distribution via quotas.
In 2023, there were 3,596 reports of temporary unavailability of medicines, of which 1.14% were deemed critical, according to the FAMHP annual report. “As a percentage, it’s not a lot, but each unavailable drug is one too many,” says spokesperson Ann Eeckhout.
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