The diabetes medications, like Ozempic and Trulicity, have made headlines over the last year and quickly become one of the hottest weight loss trends. Top celebrities and social media influences have touted the drugs’ ability to help them lose weight fast.
The increased popularity of the drugs for weight loss has contributed to skyrocketing demand and supply shortages. This has left people who rely on the drugs to manage their disease scrambling.
The medication isn’t a choice for Massachusetts resident Harry Schwartz. He has used the breakthrough drug, Trulicity, for the past few years to manage his Type 2 diabetes.
He credited the injectable medication for his remarkable progress.
“With the drug, I brought my blood sugar down from almost 400 mg per deciliter in five weeks to 118,” he explained.
However in recent weeks, he’s been having trouble filling his prescription.
“Multiple pharmacies from Falmouth to Atkinson, New Hampshire … ‘We’re not getting it. We don’t know when it is coming. We have no idea. We don’t have it in stock. We don’t know when to expect it,” Schwartz said he’s heard.
Schwartz said he has had to go without the drug for a few days and is afraid he will have to again.
“It was very frightening; very frightening,” he admitted.
His doctor recently switched him to Ozempic but he’s not hopeful he’ll be able to get that drug either. If the shortages continue, Schwartz said he’ll have to switch back to medication that isn’t as effective.
Schwartz believes the shortage is partially driven by people who are using the drug to lose a few pounds.
“You cannot have patients who need the drug watching other people take it for non-diabetic purposes,” Schwartz said.
Trulicity and Ozempic are FDA approved to treat Type 2 diabetes. Weight loss is a side effect of both medications. While the drugs are not FDA approved for weight-loss, doctors can prescribe the drugs off label for people seeking the medications.
The use of Ozempic increased by 79% between 2021-22, according to a Trilliant Health analysis. The analysis found in other areas of the country the increase was more than 300%.
The drugmakers, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, are trying to meet the increasing demand but have predicted that supply will stay limited for a while.
“It’s been extremely challenging for patients who maybe potentially you know have high hopes for medications that can really make a difference in their lives and they can’t get it,” explained
Dr. Ivania Rizo,the director of Obesity Medicine at Boston Medical Center. She said she’s stopped prescribing the drugs for new patients because of the ongoing shortages.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen these kinds of shortages where it is just not available,” Rizo said.
Rizo also has run into issues prescribing Wegovy, a drug made by the same company as Ozempic but is FDA approved for weight loss.
She said to get prescribed Wegovy for weight loss, patients are supposed to have a certain BMI level and a comorbidity.
“You do have to have something like hypertension or high cholesterol or sleep apnea or a history of heart attack or stroke or cardiovascular disease,” Rizo said.
She explained that Wegovy can significantly help people with obesity.
“We are treating not just the weight. We are decreasing people’s risk of heart attacks, strokes, hypertension, high cholesterol, osteoarthritis,” Rizo explained.
Rizo said she hopes as the shortages continue that providers use due diligence in prescribing the drugs to patients who need them and who meet the criteria. Schwartz agrees.
“The bottom line is myself and many many many millions of us; not thousands across the country need this medication to survive,” Schwartz said.
The drugmakers of the treatments have taken steps to limit starting doses of the medications. Novo Nordisk announced it is running manufacturing lines 24 hours a day, seven days a week and plans to slowly introduce more supply of Wegovy throughout the year. Eli Lilly has also expanded production sites which could help enhance the supply of Trulicity. But these efforts will take some time to make an impact on patients.
Still Rizo predicted the shortages will continue for a while.
“Every time we get told, I’m not quite sure the supply ever comes so I still am not particularly prescribing it right now until I know that we have it,” she said.
(Copyright (c) 2025 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)