{"id":2430,"date":"2023-11-14T23:49:25","date_gmt":"2023-11-15T07:49:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medicineshoppecourtenay.ca\/?p=2430"},"modified":"2023-11-15T00:02:06","modified_gmt":"2023-11-15T08:02:06","slug":"understanding-the-ozempic-options","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medicineshoppecourtenay.ca\/understanding-the-ozempic-options\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding the Ozempic Options"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Janice Harvey, RPh, CDE<\/p>\n
There are many drug shortages in the Canadian market, but perhaps the one that is garnering the most discussion is Ozempic. Why is that? How long do we expect it to last? And what can we do about it?<\/p>\n
Ozempic is one of a class of medications called GLP-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs). These medications help with weight loss by suppressing appetite and delaying gastric emptying, both of which cause you to eat less, because you feel full after eating. For diabetes, when people lose weight, their cells become more sensitive to insulin. At the same time, GLP-1 RAs cause the body to release more insulin in response to food intake, which results in sugar moving into cells to provide energy, thus lowering the amount of glucose in the blood stream (known as \u201cblood sugars\u201d or \u201cblood glucose\u201d). In addition, drugs in this class reduce cardiovascular risk.<\/p>\n
Sounds like a winning combination, doesn\u2019t it? With so many people using it for different purposes, no wonder the manufacturer is having a hard time producing enough to meet demand.<\/p>\n
Initially, the shortage involved only the 1 mg pen, but then more people switched to using the starter pen, which allows for either a 0.25 mg dose or a 0.5 mg dose, sometimes getting two pens to get the same amount of Ozempic. This has led to there being a shortage of both pens. While the shortage was originally expected to last until the end of October 2023 for the 1 mg pen only, Novo Nordisk (the manufacturer) has now expanded this to include both pens and extended the date to the end of March 2024.<\/p>\n
Yes \u2026 and no. Pharmacies are receiving very limited supplies (called allocations) of Ozempic and deliveries are not consistent. For example, we are allotted 1 or 2 of each pen each day. But in reality, we might receive one of each pen per day for two days and then nothing for the rest of the week.<\/p>\n
Novo Nordisk is encouraging pharmacies to limit refills to one pen (we really don\u2019t have any other choice) and suggest that patients contact their pharmacies well in advance of running out of their current supply. We suggest that you let us know the date of your next injection after finishing your last dose (this would be 7 days after your last dose). We have started a list of our patients taking Ozempic and their injection dates so we can distribute pens fairly and ensure patients are not missing doses. We get several phone calls every day asking for Ozempic. However, we are filling Ozempic prescriptions for our own patients only to ensure that we have a sufficient supply.<\/p>\n
Yes, other options do exist.<\/p>\n
Tirzepatide (Mounjaro<\/strong>) was approved by Health Canada on November 1, 2023. Like Ozempic, it is a GLP-1 RA. It also stimulates the GIP receptor (causing the body to make more GIP, which increases insulin release in response to the presence of glucose) and has been shown to be of more benefit than Ozempic. Dosing starts at 2.5 mg injected subcutaneously once weekly, increasing by 2.5 mg each month to a maximum of 15 mg weekly. Each dose comes in a single-use vial, so needs to be drawn into a syringe for injection.<\/p>\n At this time, Mounjaro is not covered by BC PharmaCare and has coverage from only one third-party insurer: Canada Life. More widespread coverage is expected.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n All of the above options are meant to be used for diabetes. Semaglutide for weight loss (Wegovy) is approved for use in Canada, but is not being sold here, which has likely contributed to the Ozempic shortage. When it comes to weight loss medications, there are few options available, and none are covered by BC PharmaCare.<\/p>\n Co-pay discount cards are available for both Trulicity and Mounjaro. Ask our Certified Diabetes Educator for more information.<\/p>\n We have heard of some people getting semaglutide compounded and provided in a vial. Please be aware that, for safety reasons, this can only be done by a pharmacy that does sterile compounding (there are three compounding pharmacies in the Comox Valley). Further, know that compounded semaglutide sodium and semaglutide acetate (the salt forms being used for compounding) have not been studied in a clinical trial alongside Ozempic, so there is no way to know if they are bioequivalent in terms of the way the drugs are absorbed and how they work in the body, nor can we know about long-term effects. Read more about compounded semaglutide at GoodRx Health<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What does our Certified Diabetes Educator have to say about the Ozempic shortage? And what options do you have, whether for diabetes or for weight loss?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2432,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicineshoppecourtenay.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2430"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicineshoppecourtenay.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicineshoppecourtenay.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicineshoppecourtenay.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicineshoppecourtenay.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2430"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/medicineshoppecourtenay.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2438,"href":"https:\/\/medicineshoppecourtenay.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2430\/revisions\/2438"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicineshoppecourtenay.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicineshoppecourtenay.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicineshoppecourtenay.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicineshoppecourtenay.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
Payment Assistance<\/h4>\n
RISKS OF COMPOUNDED SEMAGLUTIDE<\/strong><\/h4>\n