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To say that Ozempic is a聽聽is an understatement. Manufacturer Novo Nordisk is scrambling to expand production sites to keep up with global demand.

While Ozempic is only approved for the treatment of diabetes in Australia, it is also marketed overseas for weight loss under the brand name Wegovy.

Social media is full of posts and endorsements by celebrities who are using it for weight loss. Faced with limited access in Australia, some people who need the medication for diabetes can鈥檛 access it.

Others are turning to the internet to source it from compounding pharmacies 鈥� a practice Australia鈥檚 regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), plans to clamp down on.

Use of Ozempic for weight loss in Australia is considered 鈥溾��. This is when a doctor prescribes a medicine for a purpose outside of what is approved.

Ozempic is only approved to be used for the treatment of diabetes in Australia, but its off-label prescribing for weight loss is driving聽聽which the TGA thinks will last until 2025.

To manage these shortages, Australian doctors and pharmacies are being asked聽聽on Ozempic and to prioritise it for patients with type 2 diabetes who are already stabilised on this medicine.

However, the TGA聽听颈迟:

The active ingredient in Ozempic, semaglutide, is a delicate聽聽molecule made up of two small chains of amino acids. It鈥檚 just one in a family of drugs that are classified as GLP-1 inhibitors.

Because it鈥檚 a peptide, its manufacture is complex and requires specialised facilities beyond those used to make normal chemical-based drugs.

It is also delivered via an injection, meaning that it has to be manufactured under strict conditions to ensure it is both sterile and temperature controlled.

This means increasing production is not as simple as just deciding to manufacture more. Its manufacturer聽聽to build new facilities to increase production.

聽is the practice of combining, mixing, or altering ingredients of a drug to create a formulation tailored to the needs of an individual patient.

Australian law allows聽聽only when it is for the treatment of a particular patient to meet their individual clinical need and there is no suitable commercially manufactured product available. An example is making a liquid form of a drug from a tablet for people unable to swallow.

Compounded products are not held to the same safety, quality and efficacy standards required for mass produced medicines. This recognises the one-off nature of such compounded medicines and the professional training of the pharmacists who prepare them.

Recently, pharmacies have been relying on these compounding rules to produce their own Ozempic-like products at scale and ship them to consumers around Australia.

However, there are risks when using these products. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recently聽聽of the dangers of using compounded formulations that contain particular salt formulations of semaglutide. It has received more reports of side effects in patients using these products.

The TGA is taking a number of steps to tighten the compounding loophole and there are ongoing investigations in this area.

In December 2023, the agency issued a聽聽on the dangers of these compounded medicines.

More recently, it has proposed聽, which includes Ozempic, from Australia鈥檚 compounding exemptions. This would effectively ban pharmacies from making off-brand Ozempic. This proposal is聽聽and a final decision is expected by June this year.

If you want to access the drug for weight loss before the shortage is over, be aware that compounded products are not identical to approved Ozempic and have not been evaluated for safety, quality and efficacy.

Supply of copycat versions is also likely to be limited, given the ongoing TGA crackdown.

This article was originally published in The Conversation as written by Jessica Pace, Andrew Bartlett and Associate Professor Nial Wheate from the University of Sydney School of Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine and Health.聽