With the withdrawal of the drug Ozempic from the market, as a result of the fact that the manufacturer did not agree with the Romanian authorities regarding the price, patients treated for many years with this injectable drug are left with some variants used in the past, but the benefits will not be the same.
Doctors are forced to prescribe drugs for patients PHOTO: archive
Diabetic patients treated with Ozempic will go through a period of readjustment to other treatment formulas, the manufacturer of the medicine that diabetes doctors say has extraordinary results announcing that they are withdrawing it from the Romanian market from August 1. Doctors have several options available to their patients, but none have as many beneficial effects as Ozempic, experts say. Most of the doctors have already prescribed other drugs to their patients, because the news that Ozempic will no longer exist in pharmacies in Romania spread quickly, and the injections are still hard to find today.
A treatment option is oral medication, marketed under the name Rybelsus, which has the same active substance as Ozempic injections. It exists on the market in three concentrations, but the effect is not similar to that of injections, even at the maximum dose. Moreover, most of the patients were unable to adapt and overcome the adverse effects of the high-concentration drug.
“We actually made the switch this week and we know from experience that it doesn't work for them. (…) On July 1st we will be two years since we have Ozempic tablet in Romania. And we have seen with our own eyes how our patients are doing with Ozempic tablet. They're not doing so well”says primary diabetologist Diana Stuparu.
The effects could be seen in patients who over time refused Ozempic injections and to whom doctors presented the tablet version. Only 10% of patients tolerated the maximum dose, the doctor says, most receiving the 7 mg tablet, which would have only 30% of the effect of Ozempic injections. The drug also has the disadvantage that it is administered daily (Ozempic injections were administered weekly), and for half an hour after administration the patient must not drink or eat.
“We're going back to what we used to do”
Another option is other injectable drugs, indicated by diabetologists until the appearance of Ozempic and with which some patients are still treated today. “We're going back to what we used to do”the doctor explains what the solution is.
In order to be prescribed injectable treatment, patients must instead be further investigated. Some injections are administered weekly, others daily, the latter being, for this reason, more difficult for patients to accept. Nowadays they are also quite hard to find, there were periods when they were missing from many pharmacies.
“Patients haven't found Trulicity either, because we still have patients on Trulicity. They took the prescription everywhere, I also called many pharmacies and they told me everywhere: we don't have it. The other injections are not found either. The company that produces Trulicity has been begging us for three years not to initiate any more patients,” Dr. Stuparu also mentioned.
The company that makes this drug is the same one that released a drug with even more promising effects than Ozempic, both for treating diabetes and other diseases. The new drug, already available in Germany, would also be approved on the Romanian market this fall.
What do doctors expect?
Weight loss, which is very important in the treatment of diabetes, with many patients being overweight, will be the first effect to be lost when Ozempic injections are stopped, according to doctors' expectations. Ozempic's efficiency in trying to lose pounds and made, moreover, very sought after by patients who do not suffer from diabetes and who bought it for this purpose, for this reason there were periods when diabetics could no longer find the treatment in pharmacies .
“The effect does not last. When you take the injection, from the next day, your appetite increases and your blood sugar also increases and you gain weight. They can't control their appetite. (…) When we withdraw them, the appetite comes back and the patients don't want to abstain, we also have old people, they eat exactly what they were eating before and then they lose the kilos”, explains the diabetologist.
On the other hand, people who used Ozempic for the effect of weight loss, and who do not suffer from diabetes, also have another drug available on the Romanian market to treat obesity, which doctors specializing in nutritional diseases prescribe in their office.
“You can't want both good and cheap”
Specialists from the medical system say that the situation we have reached, namely as a drug that has been proven to help patients a lot, but that costs, the cost being fully settled by the state in the case of diabetics within the national diabetes program, at one point given to no longer be available. Not only Ozempic will be withdrawn, it is also the case for other drugs, for other pathologies, because the producers get better prices abroad, while the Romanian state insists on keeping prices low. Doctors are outraged that such drugs will no longer be available to Romanians, even against cost, and are even launching the idea of introducing a co-payment or finding other options. “You can't want both good and cheap”, says pharmacist Luiza Drăgoi, who confirms that there will also be a problem with the injectable drugs that will replace Ozempic.
“They are hard to find, it's true. And these are hard to find, but they still have the disadvantage that the injections are done daily. Ozempic, being this foma once a week, keeps blood sugar under control very well, very well. And cardiovascular disease, too. At this moment, being this Ozempic that has taken a bite out of their market, very big problems are not, how many recipes there are, but putting pressure on them again, they will certainly not be reached. It will definitely be a problem”said Drăgoi.
