United States: Two new studies have shown that many Americans are eager to get Ozempic, a drug which is usually used for diabetes and weight loss, or even fake versions that could be dangerous. So, there’s one study that has found out that U.S. prescriptions and suggestions for Ozempic increased almost five times from early 2021 to the end of 2023.
And here’s another drug which is similar to Ozempic, called Wegovy and this thing also became very popular after it was released. Researchers found that sales of Wegovy grew more than 14 times between July 2021 and the end of 2023. Both drugs contain semaglutide, which helps with weight loss and diabetes management.
Wegovy’s Popularity and Shortages
“The number of prescriptions filled for semaglutide has increased substantially, reaching 2.6 million prescriptions filled at retail pharmacies by December 2023,” Qatos’s team reported Aug. 2 in the journal JAMA Health Forum.
As reported by HealthDay, it’s all led to U.S. shortages of both Ozempic and Wegovy, first announced by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration March of 2022, the researchers noted.
Consumers who either don’t find this semaglutide because of the shortages or who can’t afford the drugs and are increasingly turning to black market vendors online found the second study.
That’s really a dicey move warned by the researchers at the University of California San Diego.
They found many online counterfeit semaglutide products either contaminated with toxins or containing hazardous doses of the drug. In some cases, the drugs simply weren’t delivered after consumers sent vendors hundreds of dollars.
Counterfeit Drug Dangers
A team led by Tim Mackey, of UCSD’s Global Health Program, conducted online searches that turned up 317 online pharmacies offering semaglutide and 314 of which were found to be legal operations.
However, these sites were offering the consumers the standard 0.25 milligram semaglutide injection pens though the other three offered a powdered form of the drug that could be reconstituted for the injection said the researchers.