About 3.8 million individuals in the US — 4 occasions the quantity two years in the past — at the moment are taking the most well-liked weight-loss medication, based on the IQVIA Institute for Human Information Science, an trade information supplier.

A few of these prescriptions are for diabetes. The medicines are Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy (the identical drug bought underneath completely different model names), and Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro and Zepbound (additionally the identical drug).

Pent-up demand is even greater, as a result of many individuals who need the medication can not discover or afford them. With out insurance coverage protection, individuals must pay out of their very own pockets. In the event that they acquire a coupon providing a reduction from Eli Lilly, individuals with business insurance coverage pay $550 a month for Zepbound. For individuals who are commercially insured, a coupon from Novo Nordisk for Wegovy reduces the pharmacy invoice by $500, making the price roughly $1,000 a month.

And the curiosity is anticipated to continue to grow.

2. The provision is restricted.

Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly have tried to reply by ramping up manufacturing, however they haven’t been capable of churn out sufficient to return near assembly demand.

Solely a restricted variety of vegetation on the earth are prepared and out there to make the injectable medication, that are more durable to fabricate than tablets. Including to the complexity, every firm is manufacturing no less than 5 dosage strengths of its drug.

“These are sophisticated websites, actually technically demanding work, very capital intensive, populated with machines which are extremely specialised and infrequently made in not-so-big firms,” Eli Lilly’s chief government, David Ricks, mentioned final month.

For Eli Lilly, which sells Zepbound for weight reduction, an important bottleneck has been making sufficient of the pens which are used to inject the drug.

Novo Nordisk, the producer of Wegovy, has struggled much more than Eli Lilly to make sufficient of its drug, although it’s making an attempt to catch up. It mentioned that in January it greater than doubled the availability of doses for brand new sufferers, estimating the medicine would attain pharmacies inside a few weeks.

This example is uncommon, mentioned Erin Fox, an skilled on the College of Utah who tracks drug shortages. Most scarcities contain older drugs in which there’s little monetary incentive to fabricate the medication. “Often if there’s a very worthwhile drug, we don’t see shortages,” she mentioned.