FDA Approves Generic in Ozempic Class: Could it Ease Shortage, Lower Costs
FDA Approves Generic in Ozempic Class: Could it Ease Shortage, Lower Costs

FDA Approves Generic in Ozempic Class: Could it Ease Shortage, Lower Costs

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United States: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has already approved a second generic drug to help with weight loss. This new drug, called Victoza, was originally made to treat type 2 diabetes. It can now also hereby be used by adults and children 10 and up. The approval of Victoza follows last month’s approval of another generic drug, exanatide, sold under the name Byetta. This could help make weight loss medicines cheaper and easier to get.

Neither drug is as effective as the brand name weekly injections regulators sell for diabetes and weight loss marketed as Ozempic and Wegovy by Novo Nordisk and Mounjaro and Zepbound by Eli Lilly.

But with more options, ‘that could definitely change the prescribing landscape,’ said Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford, a weight loss physician at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston via email.

As reported by the USA Today, the cost of these new drugs, which have yet to be made public, will dictate how much of their success will be priced into the stock.

Yet a recent report suggests that generics might typically provide a greater affordability option than brand name drugs for type 2 diabetes, and that could improve accessibility for patients requiring treatment, said Cody Stanford.

High costs limits options

Ozempic and Mounjaro each cost more than $1,000 a month: a price that’s tough for people with private insurance to swallow, even with a hefty (not always) copay.

Novo Nordisk and Lilly should lower their prices for their brand name drug of the same class, Stanford hopes, in response to the lower priced generics; and hope that more insurers will start covering GLP-1 drugs for diabetes and weight loss, she said.

The generics might also help reduce the demand on the brand name drugs and make them more available and potentially cheaper for people who need it for weight loss, she said; quickly following up that this was ‘speculative and would hinge on a number of market factors.’

However, marketed as that type of GLP-1, it has been available for years longer than the most popular ones — but it wouldn’t be as effective and would need to be taken daily, dampening patient interest, she said.

Currently the market wants weekly agents with a higher efficacy level, she explained. “We should also take that into account.”