Opinion: Wegovy--The Miracle Drug that No One Can Obtain

Whether it's Ozempic or Wegovy, these drugs actually help people to lose weight

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*This is a true story about my personal experience with trying to obtain Wegovy.

Obesity is at the heart of most American health conditions and diseases. As a country, many of us are well beyond what one would consider a healthy weight. And that results in many health issues, such as high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes, chronic kidney disease, high cholesterol, sleep apnea, and many others.

Obesity causes over 300,000 deaths annually in America, which makes it the second most deadly preventable condition. Obesity occurs for many different reasons. Some people are of the attitude that obesity only stems from being lazy and consistently overeating.

While inactivity and overeating do cause many cases of obesity. Some other causes are genetics, a slow metabolism, industrialization, cultural influences, socioeconomic status, and societal changes.

I am one of those people who are overweight and have related health problems. I’m only 40 and I have conditions that I honestly thought I was way too young to experience.

My fiancé and the father of two of my children committed suicide nine and a half years ago. When he died, I was still struggling with leftover pregnancy weight from my four-year-old son. After he passed away, I absolutely let myself go.

My grief had different stages. For the first year, I was in shock, filled with constant anxiety, and had no appetite. I lost 60 lbs. that year. Soon after, I transitioned into the deep depression phase of my grief process.

I was so sad, lonely, and in despair and I used food to mask the pain. I’m an addict and I used food like I used to use heroin during my addiction. My obesity was completely preventable.

It took time until I was ready to deal with it. That day came as soon as I received my first reality check. After avoiding annual doctor appointments for years because I was “too young,” I discovered that I was pre-diabetic.

I immediately imagined the worse possible case scenario — dying young without the chance to watch my children and future grandchildren grow up.

So, I had my doctor refer me to a local weight loss clinic. There, I was introduced to Wegovy, an amazingly effective tool for weight loss.

I had heard of Wegovy before. It also goes by the name Ozempic, which is given to people with Type 2 diabetes. It has resulted in significant weight loss for the people who have taken it as prescribed.

But there’s a problem with Wegovy/Ozempic. It’s being abused by people who don’t need it in order to lose weight quickly. The drug is very expensive, and most insurance companies will NOT pay for it.

Celebrities and other wealthy people have been buying it to use for quick weight loss because they can afford a few thousand dollars a month. As a result, Wegovy and Ozempic are not available for the people who actually need them for obesity and diabetes.

I was so thrilled when my doctor prescribed me Wegovy and said my insurance had approved it. At my heaviest, I weighed 354 lbs. I lost 60 lbs. by myself in 2021 by doing intermittent fasting. Then I started toggling back and forth between 290 lbs. and 300 lbs.

When I started at the weight loss clinic in December of 2022, I weighed 303 lbs. At my last appointment, I had shed 16 lbs. more on my own.

My doctor went over the side effects of Wegovy. It’s a weekly injection that starts at a very low dose and over the period of about five months, the dose is slowly increased monthly.

I was starting at 0.25 mg. My doctor warned me that the drug was in short supply. Again, because people who don’t really need it are using it for vanity purposes, the people who depend on it for real health issues are having an enormously difficult time trying to track it down.

My doctor said that our local hospital had stockpiled it, so I would have to go to a special pharmacy on-site at the hospital to pick it up. I waited two days until the pharmacy called me to tell me that my prescription was ready.

I drove to the hospital and spoke to the woman at the cashier, who told me that my prescription was not ready and that I’d have to wait 15 minutes. When it was finally filled, the woman said, “I just want to let you know that you’re going to have a problem getting your next dose, which is 0.5 mg. We are on back order until September.”

She told me to call my doctor and let him know that I might not be able to get my next month’s dose of Wegovy. Then I remembered what my doctor had told me at our last appointment. He said that the manufacturers of the drug were slowing down their production of the first three doses of Wegovy to avoid an influx of new patients getting on the drug.

That made me absolutely furious! I looked up the drug company’s website for Wegovy. The drug company is Novo Nordisk. This was what they said about the supply issue:

“We have been continuously monitoring prescribing trends to assess overall U.S. demand for Wegovy® which continues to increase at a substantial rate. Today we are serving hundreds of thousands of US patients with Wegovy®. However, trends indicate that demand for Wegovy® in the U.S. will exceed our current supply capacity, which has the following implications:

• While we are actively producing and shipping all dose strengths of Wegovy® and have taken significant measures to increase capacity, we will only be able to supply limited quantities of 0.25 mg, 0.5 mg, and 1 mg dose strengths to wholesalers for distribution to retail pharmacies which will not meet anticipated patient demand. We anticipate that many patients will have difficulty filling Wegovy® prescriptions at these doses through September.
• We do not currently anticipate supply interruptions of the 1.7 mg and 2.4 mg dose strengths of Wegovy®.”

Interest is so high, Novo Nordisk said, that it will pause some promotion of Wegovy “to avoid stimulating further demand.” They said it would limit the supply of starter doses as demand outpaces the company’s manufacturing capacity.

Normal people who need Wegovy and Ozempic are suffering. First, many people don’t have access to the drugs because their insurance won’t cover them. If they are fortunate enough to have the drugs covered, they can’t find the starter doses.

Once I told my doctor’s office what the woman at the pharmacy said, they told me to continue taking this month’s Wegovy. Next month, they will start me on a new weight loss drug called Saxenda.

I looked up information about Saxenda. Wegovy and Saxenda are both GLP-1 agonists. GLP-1 is a hormone made naturally in your body. It’s responsible for stimulating insulin release, suppressing your appetite, and making you feel full longer.

The difference is, Wegovy is semaglutide and Saxenda is liraglutide. First, semaglutide is longer-acting and more convenient to use. Further, a study published in JAMA in January 2022 concluded that, “Among adults with overweight or obesity without diabetes, once-weekly subcutaneous semaglutide compared with once-daily subcutaneous liraglutide, added to counseling for diet and physical activity, resulted in significantly greater weight loss at 68 weeks.”

To put it in plain English, Wegovy is significantly more effective in helping people lose weight than Saxenda. I’m willing to try it, but I’m hoping to get back on Wegovy in September if Saxenda doesn’t work.

In conclusion, it is upsetting to see a drug that works miracles being abused by the wealthy and held back from people who really need it. I will keep readers updated on any changes with Wegovy and my success with Saxenda.