Americans buying Ozempic at B.C. pharmacies

B.C. is being forced to take action as the province is trending toward a shortage of a major diabetes drug. This comes amid a surge in customers from the U.S. coming north to try to get their hands on Ozempic for the purposes of weight loss.

Ozempic, one brand name for Semaglutide, is meant to be used to help treat type 2 diabetes. However, it’s recently gone viral on social media platforms as a drug to help people lose weight — one of its side effects. It is also sold as Wegovy and Rybelsus.

In a media availability Tuesday, provincial Health Minister Adrian Dix said the use of Ozempic outside of its Health Canada approval is concerning. The drug has only been approved in Canada for use when the first option drug, metformin, is not effective in managing blood sugar levels. However, in the United States, it is approved for use to manage obesity.

“It is necessary to take some action to ensure that patients in British Columbia get access and continue to have access to Ozempic,” Dix said. “We’ve also been working closely with the drug manufacturer to make sure that patients in British Columbia get access to this drug.”

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Meanwhile, the province says it’s looking at amending regulations to limit the sale or dispensing of Ozempic to non-Canadian residents.

“To give you an idea, for the months of January and February, 15 per cent of all the Ozempic dispenses in British Columbia were sold to U.S. residents. And 19 per cent of the 12,860 patients who received the drug via [a] pharmacy were American residents,” Dix explained.

The province says the average of all other drugs sold to U.S. residents is just 0.4 per cent.

“The purpose of procuring Ozempic for British Columbian patients is not to turn around and export it right back to the United States,” the health minister said. “The purpose of procuring Ozempic is to make sure patients in British Columbia, in Canada, can continue to access it.”

Drug Shortages Canada, a website for reporting drug shortages and discontinuations across the country, shows a national shortage of the one-milligram format of Ozempic.

As it currently stands, U.S. residents are able to have their prescriptions dispensed in Canada if they are co-signed by a Canadian practitioner.

The province says two pharmacies in B.C. were responsible for dispensing more than 80 per cent of all prescriptions bound for Americans. The province notes that 95 per cent of these were written or co-signed by practitioners in Nova Scotia.

“The number of prescriptions emanating from one or more practitioners in Nova Scotia is concerning. As a direct result of the review of PharmaNet data, I am writing to all provincial and territorial health ministers in Canada, as well as the minister of health for Canada, Jean-Yves Duclos, to review and take appropriate actions,” Dix said.

Editor’s note: A previous headline to this story suggested that B.C. is seeing a shortage of Ozempic, which has not been confirmed.