People in Chicago and across the country who depend on the drug Ozempic for treating Type-2 diabetes and obesity are having a hard time finding it.
The shortage of the drug Ozempic has been going on for six to eights months. Dr. Disha Narang, endocrinologist and director of obesity medicine at Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest Hospital, says it’s just gotten worse.
“What’ll happen is, I’ll have a follow-up appointment. I might have seen somebody a few months ago in clinic and I find out, ‘Oh you haven’t had your medication for the last three months and your blood sugars are way high.’
“So, we’re spinning our wheels quite a bit right now, just trying to blow out fires every day here.”
Dr. Narang said demand for Ozempic increased after social media posts about weight loss went viral.
She prescribes it for weight loss, for management over a long term.
“But what we’ve seen in the last year or so, possibly more, is that there’s been inappropriate prescribing of the medication.”
She said some have been prescribing it -- wrongly -- as a quick fix.
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