At least 25,000 people in the United States are starting the weight-loss drug Wegovy every week, the drug maker says | CNN

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Drugmaker Novo Nordisk said it is ramping up supplies of its sought-after weight loss drug Wegovy, with at least 25,000 people now starting the drug each week in the United States.

That’s more than a capacity crowd for Madison Square Garden, which holds 19,500 people.

That’s about five times more than they were able to start the drug each week in December, the Danish pharmaceutical giant said on an earnings call Thursday.

There’s a lot, a lot of demand, Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen told CNN in an interview Thursday. Therefore, for the foreseeable future, we believe that demand will exceed supply. But little by little we are launching more and more doses on the market.

The company, which also makes Ozempic for type 2 diabetes, has limited the amount of lower doses of Wegovy it has made available over the past year to prevent too many new patients from starting the drugs amid the shortage . The drugs are designed to start at lower doses that are gradually increased over time in order to limit side effects such as nausea.

Both Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, which makes competing drugs Mounjaro and Zepbound, have been working to combat drug shortages amid unprecedented demand. Companies have been both buying and building manufacturing plants to try to keep up, but shortages and difficult insurance coverage for many patients can make the drugs difficult to access.

Jorgensen said Novo Nordisk has one plant in the US and one in Denmark that make the active pharmaceutical ingredient in Wegovy and Ozempic, called semaglutide, and is building two more in Denmark.

The company has also expanded capacity at existing plants that do fill and finish, the next steps in the manufacturing process to put drugs into vials or pens, he said, and acquired three additional sites in a $16.5 billion purchase of the Catalent drug manufacturing company.

We have a massive expansion program, Jorgensen said. So, incremental new capabilities are being lined up over the coming months and years to sustain this journey and reach many more patients than we serve today.

Jorgensen said the investments in manufacturing are probably the biggest [capital expenditures] program in the history of pharmaceutical expansion, comparing the scale of the increase to the race to manufacture enough Covid-19 vaccines during the pandemic.

During the pandemic we had to increase vaccine manufacturing capacity, but that was, say, two, three, four doses per person, Jorgensen said. Here, we were talking about the weekly injections. we were talking about [for] many patients, chronic treatment.

EliLilly, Novo Nordisk’s main competitor, also said this week that it expects supply to increase by the end of the year.

Demand for tirzepatide is very strong, Lilly Chief Financial Officer Anat Ashkenazi said on the company’s quarterly earnings call, referring to the active ingredient in Mounjaro and Zepbound.

Hundreds of thousands of people fill each week [prescriptions] For Mounjaro and Zepbound, however, we understand the frustration of those who face prescription delays or uncertainties in obtaining their medications, Ashkenazi continued. While we are working tirelessly to increase supply and expect significant increases in shipment volumes in the second half of the year, demand continues to outpace even increased supply.

Prescription data show that Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic is the most prescribed of the four main drugs in the class, known as GLP-1 receptor agonists after the gut hormone they emulate. Lillys drugs also mimic a second hormone, called GIP. They all work by reducing appetite, regulating insulin and slowing the digestion of food to make people feel fuller for longer.

There are more than 500,000 total prescriptions for Ozempic each week in the US, according to data cited by financial firm BMO Capital Markets. Lillys Mounjaro is the second most prescribed drug in the group, with around 300,000 prescriptions per week. Both drugs are approved for type 2 diabetes, but doctors also prescribe them off-label for weight loss.

Ozempic was the first of four approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in December 2017. Wegovy was approved in June 2021, Mounjaro in May 2022 and Zepbound in November 2023.

Ultimately, the drugs are expected to be used much more for weight loss than type 2 diabetes, given how many patients fall into each category. BMO analyst Evan Seigerman, who follows shares of Lilly and Novo Nordisk, said he estimates GLP-1 drugs globally will generate $74 billion in diabetes by 2030 and $104 billion by then in obesity.

Insurance coverage has been more difficult for drugs approved primarily for weight loss, although both Novo Nordisk and Lilly said this week that it was improving in the US.

About 50 million Americans currently have insurance coverage for Wegovy, Jorgensen said, and Lilly told investors this week that about 67 percent of Americans with commercial insurance have coverage for Zepbound. Jorgensen also said Medicaid coverage is improving, noting that several states have opted in and see value in treating patients living with obesity.

Wegovy was shown in a major clinical trial last year to not only help with weight loss, but also to prevent heart attacks, strokes and heart-related deaths in people at high cardiovascular risk, which can increase even more demand for the drug, but also improve insurance coverage. ; the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services later said that Medicare plans could cover the drug for heart benefits.

So far we’re only reaching, say, a million Americans out of the 50 million whose insurance would cover Wegovy, Jorgensen said. He noted that one million are the number of patients who have been prescribed Wegovy in the US, and fewer are currently taking the drug, although he did not specify exactly how many. More than 40% of American adults are estimated to be obese, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or about 100 million people.

So I think drug availability is probably a bigger challenge than actually access through insurance coverage, Jorgensen said.