Tammie Rachel Largent-Phillips, 52, has type 2 diabetes. For the past two years, she has managed the condition using a drug called Ozempic, which helps people with diabetes control their blood sugar.
But in November, she was forced to switch to another drug, insulin. The Ozempic she needed was no longer available in her pharmacy.
In recent months, demand for the drug has skyrocketed, hitting global supply issues. Together this led to a shortage of Ozempic.
But the popularity of Ozempic, or semaglutide, is not due to rising rates of diabetes. Instead, it’s because of his weight loss benefits, say the doctors. At higher doses, semaglutide is used for weight loss. The manufacturer Ozempic Novo Nordisk sells this higher dose under a different brand name: Wegovy.
Wegovy shortages, also very popular, were prevalent last year. As a result, some people taking Wegovy were instead prescribed off-label Ozempic for weight loss. This causes problems for people like Largent-Phillips, who need the drug to manage their chronic disease.
“It’s been very frustrating,” Largent-Phillips, of Florida, said of the shortage, adding that her blood sugar fluctuated as she had to switch medications.
In people with type 2 diabetes, the body does not use insulin properly. Insulin is a hormone that tells cells in the body to take in glucose, or sugar, from the blood. If the body does not use it well, this sugar remains in the blood, which leads to high blood sugar.
Ozempic works by mimicking a hormone in the body that regulates insulin levels. It is a type of medicine called a GLP-1 agonist. The drug is self-administered weekly as an injection.
Without medication, people with type 2 diabetes risk spikes in blood sugar levels that can can lead to serious health problemsincluding heart disease, kidney disease, hearing loss and stroke.
“Even in the short term, people can feel bad about high blood sugar,” said Dr. Robert Gabbay, chief scientist of the American Diabetes Association.
The supply shortages from Ozempic meant that some patients had to go to multiple pharmacies before they could find the drug, said Dr. Marcio Griebeler, an endocrinologist at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. In other cases, he said, patients were forced to take a lower dose because that’s all that was available.
That’s not “ideal,” Griebeler said, because patients may not respond the same way they did with the higher dose.
For those who can’t find the drug at all, the only option is to switch to another drug, which may not be as effective, said Dr. Susan Spratt, endocrinologist and senior medical director for the Office of Health Management. population of Duke Health in North Carolina.
That’s what 57-year-old Shane Anthony of Seattle had to do. He has type 2 diabetes and has not been able to receive Ozempic since October.
Anthony was prescribed a different drug, but he said it wasn’t as effective. His wife, Gerilynn, who is a nurse, said his blood sugar level had gone up since he left Ozempic.
“It really drives me crazy; it makes me furious,” Anthony said. “We need it to stay alive and continue to function on a daily basis.”
Switching to another drug also complicates matters when Ozempic becomes available again.
Coming back to Ozempic isn’t always a simple adjustment, Spratt said; Because it can be accompanied by side effects, such as nausea or vomiting, patients are often first prescribed a lower dose which is gradually increased over several weeks.
“To go back on the drug, you have to start all over again,” she said, “and it’s really painful.”
Dr. Disha Narang, an endocrinologist at Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest Hospital in Illinois, said she saw patients “every day” who were taking Ozempic, then later found their pharmacy no longer carried the drug.
Some patients have had luck finding samples in doctors’ offices, she said.
But others have stopped taking medication altogether, she said, which has caused their blood sugar levels to spike.
The shortage has been difficult for patients and doctors, she added.
“We don’t necessarily have control of the supply chain,” she said, adding that doctors act as a sort of middleman between patients and the drugs they need.
Novo Nordisk, the company that makes both Ozempic and Wegovy, told NBC News that the availability of Ozempic has improved, but supply issues remain.
Allison Schneider, company spokesperson, said in a statement that Ozempic is currently available in certain doses for type 2 diabetes, however, the company is still experiencing supply issues that will last throughout the month and patients in certain areas of the United States will • experience delays in obtaining their medications.
“Anyone concerned about continuity of treatment should contact their health care provider,” she said.
Largent-Phillips, from Florida – who documented her experience on TikTok – said that for now she needs to be vigilant about monitoring her blood sugar.
She said she didn’t blame the people using it for weight loss for the shortage, but the manufacturer and the supply chain.
She noted that there are many people besides her who need this medicine to manage their illnesses.
“It’s awful,” she said.
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