Ozempic semaglutide shortage: Mum living with diabetes can’t find her life-saving medication
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A terrified mother claims she can’t access the life-saving medication because doctors are prescribing it as a ‘magic bullet for weight loss’, causing nationwide shortages.
- Mom Nama Winston lives with diabetes and cannot afford her regular medication
- Ozempic, an injectable medication, is being used by people who want to lose weight.
- This has led to a nationwide shortage as of November 2022.
A mother living with diabetes says she is struggling to find her life-saving drug in pharmacies due to nationwide shortages because it is “in demand” for weight loss.
Nama Winston claims it took her ‘years’ to find affordable life-saving medicines, and now they have been ‘ripped off’ and have become increasingly difficult to buy.
single dad said kidspot he’s on Ozempic, an injectable drug that helps suppress hunger, and he can’t just ‘eat better’ as a workaround.
“Suddenly not having access to this medication, which I use for diabetes, makes me feel like shit. I need this drug NOW.’
Mama Nama Winston (pictured) is struggling to find the medicine that will save her life and is used for her diabetes. The nationwide shortage of the injectable drug Ozempic (semaglutide) is due to people using it to lose weight.
Nama told Kidspot that it took her “years” to find affordable life-saving medicines, and now they have been “ripped off” and becoming harder and harder to find.
He explained that users should build up to the maximum and most effective dose over a few weeks.
‘So that when you go to the pharmacy and they put you on a waiting list to get your injection in a fortnight, you effectively have to start all over again. And you don’t really feel good in the meantime,” he said.
Nama said she is constantly worried about her blood sugar levels which can quickly become “out of control”, with symptoms including fatigue, irritable bowel syndrome and nausea.
Not only that, he said he ‘can’t afford’ to do without it.
Nama said she is constantly worried about her blood sugar levels which can quickly become “out of control”, with symptoms including fatigue, irritable bowel syndrome and nausea. Not only that, she said that she ‘can’t afford’ to go without him.
“The problem with the shortage is that Ozempic is one of those drugs that you need to stock up in order for your body to tolerate the maximum and most effective dose,” Nama said.
In November 2022, the pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk informed the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) that Ozempic (semaglutide) will not be available in Australia from mid-November 2022 until the end of March 2023.
Patients prescribed the drug are urged to contact their doctor immediately to have their treatment re-evaluated.
According to the Department of Health and Care for the Elderly, the TGA is working with Novo Nordisk and relevant healthcare professional organizations to manage this severe shortage.
Trent Twomey, President of the Australian Pharmacy Guild said 2GB this month that Ozempic was used for weight loss but is only approved for people with type 2 diabetes as prescribed by their doctor.
‘So the drug Ozempic has been approved for use in Australia [on the PBS] for — it’s strictly for those with type 2 diabetes,’ he said.
“There have been these enterprising GPs coming out with these apps that are issuing a script without them ever seeing a patient,” Twomey said.