health
There is a national shortage of weight loss drugs.
Wild Awake – Stock.adobe.com
Taking weight loss drugs is no longer the road less traveled, with people going over 1,000 miles to get their hands on semaglutide drugs Wigovy and Ozempic.
The popularity of these drugs has caused shortages across the country, and people will go to any lengths to get their prescriptions filled.
Other popular weight loss drugs, Mounjaro and Zepbound (both tirzepatide), are out of stock until July, and pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly has warned that drug shortages could last until 2025. According to doctors, slimming down choices can lead to drastic measures.
Dr. Angela Fitch, a New York City physician specializing in obesity medicine, says: told the Daily Mail She said she has seen patients come from as far away as Ohio, Virginia and Florida to get prescriptions filled.
She said another patient drove 400 miles from Maine.
A 35-year-old mother and advertising executive in New York City, who requested anonymity, told the Post that she has had trouble filling prescriptions at pharmacies ever since she was prescribed Wigoby. Both Wegovy and Ozempic are manufactured by Nordisk.
“It took me over a month to find a local pharmacy that carries Wegovy after I was prescribed the drug in February 2023,” she said.
“A local independent pharmacy filled my prescription, but they told me they could no longer provide the medication because my insurance would not allow them to profit from the prescription. So I decided to mail the prescription to them. I started looking into services. Thanks to Amazon, I was able to get the medicine as well. But I had problems getting refills because I couldn’t get the medicine,” she added.
But even Amazon is having trouble keeping the drugs in stock, and people are willing to go out of state to get them.
“With that being said, Amazon is currently not accepting new prescriptions for GLP-1 drugs due to their inability to meet demand. We are grateful to have the drugs available to us and will be accepting new prescriptions today. I don’t know what will happen if I receive it,” she explained.
Tara Dykens from Massachusetts told ABC That she is having trouble filling her prescription for Zepbound.
“I think we tried to contact 20 to 25 pharmacies in one afternoon,” she said.
Hannah Rose Cotton, TikTok content creator explained her problem in detail Get Zepbound. She said she was finally able to get the drug, but as of Saturday, there were no pharmacies within 100 miles of her that stocked it.
Marley Bruno, owner of Mind, Body & Soul Medical, a medical spa in Pensacola, Fla., says demand is even higher now as people want to get in shape before summer arrives. told the Daily Mail.
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“We are in Florida and summer is already approaching. People are starting to wear bikinis and want to take pills to lose weight fast. If you do these things you can lose a lot of weight in a short period of time. “It is possible to reduce this,” Bruno said.
“The norm is that patients lose about 1 pound per week, but they tend to lose a little more than that. After three months, they may have lost at least 12 pounds of fat, which is It’s a significant reduction, and many patients feel much better,” Bruno added.
Celebrities and ordinary people alike are sharing their successful weight loss journeys online, making the drug even more popular. Emily Simpson, 47, of the Real Housewives of Orange County organization, said the drug helped her lose 40 pounds.
The surge in demand has led people to prescribe non-brand name compounded versions of the drug, which are legal if there is a shortage.
Last year, the Post featured a story about New York City mothers looking to lose baby weight who were flocking to “seedy” clinics to get their hands on compounded semaglutide. That’s because many mothers didn’t meet the requirements to be prescribed the brand name.
Those who meet the requirements can also obtain compounded semaglutide, but many still prefer the branded version for safety and efficacy reasons. There are no official generic versions of weight loss drugs available.
The FDA has issued warnings about combination semaglutide in the past.
“The FDA has received reports of adverse events after patients used combination semaglutide. Patients should not use the combination drug if an approved drug is available to treat the patient. Patients and Healthcare Professionals “People should understand that the agency has not reviewed compounded versions of these drugs for safety, effectiveness, or quality,” the FDA says. he declared.
“Patients should be aware that some products sold as ‘semaglutide’ do not contain the same active ingredient as FDA-approved semaglutide products and may be salt formulations. . “Products containing these salts, such as semaglutide sodium and semaglutide acetate, have not been proven safe and effective,” the site continued.
