{"id":76282,"date":"2024-06-19T09:08:03","date_gmt":"2024-06-19T09:08:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/19\/south-africa-runs-out-of-insulin-pens-as-global-supply-shifts-to-weight-loss-drugs\/"},"modified":"2024-06-19T09:08:03","modified_gmt":"2024-06-19T09:08:03","slug":"south-africa-runs-out-of-insulin-pens-as-global-supply-shifts-to-weight-loss-drugs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/19\/south-africa-runs-out-of-insulin-pens-as-global-supply-shifts-to-weight-loss-drugs\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa Runs Out of Insulin Pens as Global Supply Shifts to Weight-Loss Drugs"},"content":{"rendered":"
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South Africa\u2019s public health care system has run out of the human insulin pens that it provides to people with diabetes, as the pharmaceutical industry shifts production priorities to blockbuster weight-loss drugs that use a similar device for delivery.<\/p>\n

Novo Nordisk, the company that has supplied South Africa with human insulin in pens for a decade, opted not to renew its contract, which expired last month. No other company has bid on the contract \u2014 to supply 14 million pens for the next three years, at about $2 per pen.<\/p>\n

\u201cCurrent manufacturing capacity limitations mean that patients in some countries, including South Africa, may have limited access to our human insulins in pens,\u201d said Ambre James-Brown, a spokeswoman for Novo Nordisk. The company did not reply to questions about which other countries are affected.<\/p>\n

Novo Nordisk\u2019s <\/span>drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, which are widely prescribed in the U.S. for weight loss, are sold in single-use pens produced by many of the same contracted manufacturers<\/a> who make the multidose insulin pens. A month\u2019s supply of Ozempic in the United States costs about $1,000, far more than insulin.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n