Health Canada has approved the second generic version of brand-name Ozempic, this one manufactured by Canadian company Apotex.<\/p>\n
The authorization comes just three days after<\/a> Health Canada approved the first generic semaglutide \u2014 the active ingredient in Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic \u2014 made by Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories in India.<\/p>\n The injectable medications are approved for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes in adults, but Ozempic is often prescribed off-label for weight loss.<\/p>\n Canada is the first of the G7 countries to authorize generic semaglutide.<\/p>\n Apotex is a global pharmaceutical company headquartered in Toronto.<\/p>\n Many people without drug coverage have been eagerly waiting for generic semaglutide because the brand name original can cost hundreds of dollars a month. Depending on the dose, people can pay about $300 to $400<\/a>, sometimes even more, per month.<\/p>\n How much cheaper generic semaglutide will be than Ozempic depends on how many generic options are approved and hit the market, say experts.<\/p>\n According to the pricing structure of the pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance, the first generic medication could cost 75 to 85 per cent of the brand name. Once a second medication enters the market, the price for both drops to 50 per cent.<\/p>\n When there are three or more generic products available in Canada, the cost would decrease to about 35 per cent of brand-name Ozempic’s price.<\/p>\n Drug shows benefits, but experts caution its use <\/p>\n Recent research continues to boast broad benefits for semaglutide drugs, including impacts on inflammation<\/a>, arthritis<\/a> and lowering the risk of major cardiac events, stroke and early death<\/a>.<\/p>\n “That’s remarkable. There aren’t many drugs that have had that degree of study going on,” said Dr. Hertzel Gerstein, a diabetes doctor and researcher in Hamilton.<\/p>\n But, he also cautions their use.<\/p>\n “They’re not supplements, they’re not over-the-counter things,” said Gerstein, who is also the director of the Population Health Research Institute jointly run by McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences.<\/p>\n “They’re powerful drugs. They do good things. They can be taken in a wrong way, and that can cause problems and side effects.”<\/p>\n Before getting on a weight loss drug, he said people should speak to a health-care professional.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Health Canada has approved the second generic version of brand-name Ozempic, this one manufactured by Canadian company Apotex.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13375,13373,17,13370,13371,13372,1855,13374,13377,13376,13378],"class_list":["post-28381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-apotex","tag-brand-name","tag-canada","tag-generic-products","tag-generic-version","tag-hamilton-health-sciences","tag-health-canada","tag-hertzel-gerstein","tag-novo-nordisk","tag-ozempic","tag-weight-loss-drug"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}