Yearslong shortage of popular weight-loss and diabetes drugs is resolved, FDA says

Shortages of Ozempic and Wegovy that have been in place for more than two years have been resolved, as supplies of the popular diabetes and obesity treatments continue to improve, federal regulators said Friday.

The drugmaker Novo Nordisk can meet present and future demand in the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration said. But patients may still see some supply disruptions as the medications move from the manufacturer to distributors and then to pharmacies.

The injectable drugs have been in shortage since 2022.

In December, the FDA declared that shortages of treatments Zepbound and Mounjaro from another drugmaker, Eli Lilly and Co., also had been resolved. Zepbound is approved to treat obesity and Mounjaro is approved for diabetes. They use the same active ingredient, tirzepatide.

Ozempic, for diabetes, and Wegovy, for weight loss, use the active ingredient semaglutide.

All four drugs are part of a GLP-1 class of treatments that has shown unprecedented results for helping people shed weight by decreasing appetite and boosting feelings of fullness.

Sales have soared for the drugs in recent years. But the shortages have made access to these drugs challenging for many patients as the drugmakers have raced to increase production.

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