Rush for diabetes and weight-loss drug Ozempic puts cross-border sales in spotlight
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The B.C. government's bid to restrict the sale of diabetes drug Ozempic to prevent non-Canadian residents draining supplies was the right move and a long time coming, says Brett Skinner, founder and CEO of the Canadian Health Policy Institute.
The B.C. government's bid to restrict the sale of diabetes drug Ozempic to prevent non-Canadian residents draining supplies was the right move and a long time coming, says Brett Skinner, founder and CEO of the Canadian Health Policy Institute.
Nearly two decades ago, Skinner warned that policymakers in Canada had to wise up to the market realities for pharmaceuticals and realize large-scale demand from Americans for cheaper Canadian drugs threatened the country's limited supplies.
In the case of Ozempic, its popularity has soared in recent years thanks to a ubiquitous advertising campaign coupled with celebrity-driven social media chatter about its effectiveness as a means of losing weight, a so-called “off label” use for the drug.
B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix said on Tuesday he wants a federal clampdown on sales to non-residents after it was discovered that Americans were being sent thousands of doses of Ozempic in the mail from B.C., the majority prescribed by a single practitioner in Nova Scotia.
“It's Ozempic today, it might be another drug tomorrow, but I don't think this is a short-term thing,” Dix said. “It's a significant drug and it's part of our PharmaCare system.”
The health minister said that advertising and social media hype had fuelled American demand for Ozempic, and B.C. pharmacies that ship products by mail have enabled it and created an “unacceptable situation.”
“We would never have sufficient supply of Ozempic in British Columbia to satisfy the needs of the American market,” Dix said. “We have to protect patients here.”
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