B.C. regulation aims to protect Ozempic supply for diabetes patients

By The Canadian Press and Mike Gazzola

B.C. is bringing in a new regulation immediately to ensure diabetes patients don’t face a shortage of the drug Ozempic, touted by celebrities for its weight loss side effects.

Health Minister Adrian Dix says the change will ensure patients in B.C. and Canada needing Ozempic to treat their Type 2 diabetes will continue to have access to that drug and others that may require it in the future.

“We have to protect the interests of B.C. patients, those who need this drug and other drugs, here in British Columbia,” he said Wednesday.

“It is an important step and it’s one by establishing the regulation where if this were to occur with other drugs, we could add such drugs to the list. This is a legislative and regulatory response to a real problem.”


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Dix says the regulation will help prevent online or mail-order sales of Ozempic to people who do not live in Canada and who are not in B.C. to make a purchase.

The new regulation comes after the discovery that about 15 per cent of Ozempic prescriptions were being filled at two Vancouver locations for shipment to the United States.

“Increasingly, U.S. customers were turning to Canadian online pharmacies to purchase drugs at prices lower than can be obtained domestically in the United States. This is concerning. We do not bring Ozempic to British Columbia, we do not bring drugs to British Columbia for them to be re-exported to the United States,” Dix said.

Earlier this month, the Nova Scotia College of Physicians and Surgeons suspended the licence of a doctor living in the United States who is believed to have written thousands of prescriptions for Ozempic, a drug some patients are seeking to help with weight loss.

The government says the BC College of Pharmacists will be responsible for ensuring its registrants comply with the new regulation.

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