This year, celebrity gossip, a national shortage, and eyebrow-raising clinical trials made household names of weight-loss and diabetes drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro.
The medications’ ever-expanding reach might explain why many people in the United States are having trouble filling prescriptions. From 2020 to 2022, the number of prescriptions for these drugs quadrupled — up to roughly 9 million in the final months of 2022, according to one analysis. In 2023, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration included both Ozempic and Wegovy on its drug shortages list.
And demand may continue to rocket up. Data from clinical trials and other studies suggest these drugs can improve cardiovascular health and perhaps even help treat addiction (SN: 8/30/23).
The FDA approved Ozempic for type 2 diabetes in 2017, and now new, potentially more potent and easier-to-produce versions are in the pipeline, says Susan Yanovski, a physician and nutrition specialist at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases in Bethesda, Md. “I’ve been doing this for more than 30 years now, and I have not seen this degree of excitement.”
2023-12-13 07:00:00
Source from www.sciencenews.org
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