Novo Nordisk to offer Wegovy weight loss drug in PH this year

A box of Ozempic and contents sit on a table in Dudley, North Tyneside, Britain, October 31, 2023. Ozempic is approved for type 2 diabetes, but doctors may sometimes prescribe it off-label for weight loss and management. Wegovy on the other hand is approved for weight loss and management —Reuter/Lee Smith

MANILA, Philippines — Denmark-based multinational pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk will be making available in the Philippines within this year Wegovy, its approved weight loss treatment for individuals with obesity.

Wegovy can be bought in the local market “anytime between the third and fourth quarter” of 2025, Dr. Cyrus Pasamba, medical manager of Novo Nordisk Philippines, told the Inquirer on the sidelines of an event in Taguig City on Tuesday.

This would address the “artificial” shortage of Ozempic, another Novo Nordisk drug which is prescribed for the treatment of type 2 diabetes but has been used off-label as a weight loss medication.

Wegovy has been approved by the Philippine Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as early as February last year, but these are not yet made available locally.

“The reason for the waiting time is that we need a go signal from our headquarters that there are stocks of Wegovy allotted for the Philippines that is sufficient for the estimated number of patients that will need it,” Pasamba explained.

READ: Alternative weight loss drug to be sold in PH soon

“So far, the Philippines is among the countries which will be prioritized for the supply allotment within the year,” he added.

Pasamba could not give a ballpark figure of the price of a Wegovy injection pen, but it is generally double the price of an Ozempic injection pen.

Ozempic, which was approved by the FDA in 2022, currently retails at P7,560 apiece.

Both Ozempic and Wegovy need a prescription from a physician.

They both contain semaglutide, which is from a group of drugs called glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists that are used for the treatment of hyperglycemia (high blood sugar) in type 2 diabetes in adults, adolescents, and children over 12 years old. They also reduce the risk of cardiovascular events, including heart attacks and strokes. Wegovy has a higher semaglutide dosage than Ozempic.

Both are injected under the skin on a weekly basis, but other semaglutide products are available as tablets can also be taken by mouth daily.

Semaglutides are shown to suppress appetite in addition to lowering blood sugar levels, and therefore are being increasingly prescribed for weight loss in some countries.

They work by slowing down the digestive process, leading to feelings of fullness and reducing appetite.

Combined with proper diet and exercise, semaglutides are shown to cause 15 to 20 percent weight loss in patients.

But some Filipino diabetes patients—estimated to be at least 7 million—were complaining that their drug stores had been facing shortages in Ozempic since 2022, and had to resort to the black market to have access to these life-saving medicines.

The FDA said they were informed by Novo Nordisk that the worldwide shortage of Ozempic and Wegovy was due to an “unexpected increase in demand due to off-label prescribing” of the two drugs for weight loss.

Off-label prescribing involves physicians giving drug prescriptions to treat conditions other than those approved by the FDA. It is a legal and regular occurrence in the healthcare system of the Philippines and other countries, particularly for the treatment of uncommon diseases and conditions.

Due to their high-demand, the World Health Organization (WHO) raised the alarm for the increased reports on falsified semaglutide products, particularly Ozempic and Wegovy, in all parts of the world, including the Philippines, since 2022.

Pasamba refrained the public from buying Ozempic and Wegovy from online stores, saying these products may not be genuine or adulterated, and may result in the ineffective treatment of patients’ conditions.

In addition, most of the semaglutide products being sold online already broke the required cold-chain handling.

Both Ozempic and Wegovy require strict cold chain management to maintain its effectiveness. It must be stored at temperatures between 2 and 8 degrees Celsius.

“A lot of people selling these online just post a picture of these pens outside their cold-chain storage, usually just sitting at room temperature. Automatically, they have already broken the cold chain management, and therefore the quality of these products are no longer assured,” he said.

To protect themselves from falsified medicines and their harmful effects, patients who are using Ozempic and Wegovy are advised by the WHO to only buy them with prescriptions from licensed physicians and authorized pharmacies.

They should also avoid buying medicines from unfamiliar or unverified sources, such as those that may be found online.

Patients are also urged to check the packaging and expiry dates of medicines when they buy them, and use the products as prescribed. /cb