Popular diabetes medication Mounjaro will be in short supply through April
The maker of Mounjaro, Eli Lilly, points to unprecedented demand for the shortage. The FDA has announced that the top-selling diabetes medication Mounjaro will be in short supply through April. This has caused pharmacists and Pittsburgh-area patients to be scrambling for the drug. The shortage could lead to serious health problems if patients misuse their dose. Nearly all type 2 diabetics are dealing with this shortage, with Sarah Winter from Allegheny Health Network stating that it's one of the drugs type 2 diabetes cannot find due to supply and demand, and using the medications off-label for weight loss can lead to health issues such as stomach, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea. Many insurers now require preauthorizations to get the diabetic medication for weightloss. The maker of MounJaro, Eli Lilly, points to unprecedented demand for the shortage.
Published : a month ago by By Meghan Schiller in Health General
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — A popular diabetes medication will be in short supply for much longer than previously expected.
Now, pharmacists and Pittsburgh-area patients like Mark Allen are scrambling. Allen reached out to KDKA-TV because he wanted to know if he was alone in this stressful search and hoped we could get him in touch with a pharmacy that has this diabetes medication in stock.
The FDA announced this week that the shortage of the top-selling diabetes medication Mounjaro will continue through the end of April.
"Beginning with my local pharmacy, I had called a total of eight different pharmacies," said Allen, a type 2 diabetic.
The Apollo man needs this medication to keep his glucose in check. He's already feeling the effects.
"My A1C, which is an average glucose reading over three months, has been in the low sevens. And my A1C that I just had done was 9.3. And that's not acceptable at all," Allen said.
KDKA-TV reached out to Allegheny Health Network and found out that nearly all type 2 diabetics are dealing with this shortage.
"It's on a daily basis I'm fielding a question from one of my providers or a patient that I'm directly working with of not being able to find their medication," said Sarah Winter, a clinical pharmacist at Allegheny Health Network.
Winter needed to make a computer shortcut to the FDA's online shortage list because she's on it so often.
"Ozempic is the diabetic medication and Wegovy is the sister medication for weight loss. And when it comes to Mounjaro the sister medication for weight loss is Zepbound, but of course, it's the newest one on the market and it's already on shortage." said Winter.
She said Mounjaro is just one of the drugs type 2 diabetics can't find for reasons like supply and demand and using the medications off-label for weight loss. Now, she's forced to find different doses or switch patients to different medications in the same class.
"The hope was that once they started to make medications specifically branded for weight loss, that it would start to improve. But I just don't think we've seen the manufacturer bounce back from the supply and demand," said Winter.
And she says for patients like Allen, this shortage could mean serious health problems if he messes with his dose.
"They can have very negative side effects as far as stomach, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and sometimes they can be significant enough to put people into the emergency room," said Winter.
Allen wants people trying to get these diabetes medicines for weight loss to consider how it's impacting diabetics too.
"I do have friends who are on it for weight loss and I don't have hard feelings towards them, I just think that it's being prescribed wrong," said Allen.
They have increased the requirements for doctors to prescribe these medications off-label, and many insurers now require a preauthorization to get the diabetic medication for weight loss.
The maker of Mounjaro, Eli Lilly, points to unprecedented demand for the shortage.