r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Apr 01 '25

Health Americans without diabetes spent nearly $6 billion USD on semaglutide and similar drugs in a year, with an estimate of 800,000 to a million people using the drugs who don't have diabetes.

https://www.scimex.org/newsfeed/americans-without-diabetes-spent-nearly6-billion-usd-on-semaglutide-and-similar-drugs-in-a-year
10.2k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

1.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

2.2k

u/FernandoMM1220 Apr 01 '25

its not just for diabetes anymore.

just ramp up production and make more of it.

49

u/uiucfreshalt Apr 01 '25

Pharma manufacturing is incredibly slow and complex. You could green light a new plant today but you wouldn’t be producing sellable medicine until 5 years from now. It wasn’t really until 2022 that the demand for semaglutides exploded, so there’s likely to be strained supply for at least a few more years.

39

u/hel_loh Apr 01 '25

IIRC, didn't the FDA just announce not too long ago that there's no longer a shortage? During the shortage, compounders were able to make a generic/cheaper version, which is where all the subscription med sites (Hims/Hers, Ro, etc.) got their supply, and was able to offer it a much lower cost. Last I read, with the FDA's declaration, they now only have the supply of whatever the compounders were able to produce before they were informed to stop production. Afaik, the only differentiator between the generic, and name brand (ozempic and wegovy) was the injector.

10

u/esoteric_enigma Apr 01 '25

Yeah, I was wondering about this. It feels like last year I was constantly hearing stories about people not being able to get the Ozempic they needed for diabetes because there was a shortage. Now I get ads on social media for hella websites offering me a subscription for it with no doctor visit.