Diabetes drug Ozempic is shown at a pharmacy in Toronto on Wednesday, April 19, 2023. British Columbia is enacting a new regulation to ensure the province's diabetes patients do not face a shortage of the drug widely known as Ozempic. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Joe O'Connal
VICTORIA – British Columbia is bringing in a new regulation immediately to ensure diabetes patients don’t face a shortage of the drug Ozempic, touted by celebrities for its weight loss side effects.
Health Minister Adrian Dix says the change will ensure patients in B.C. and Canada needing Ozempic to treat their Type 2 diabetes will continue to have access to that drug and others that may require it in the future.
Dix says the regulation will help prevent online or mail-order sales of Ozempic to people who do not live in Canada and who are not in B.C. to make a purchase.
The new regulation comes after the discovery that about 15 per cent of Ozempic prescriptions were being filled at two Vancouver locations for shipment to the United States.
Earlier this month, the Nova Scotia College of Physicians and Surgeons suspended the licence of a doctor living in the United States who is believed to have written thousands of prescriptions for Ozempic, a drug some patients are seeking to help with weight loss.
The government says the BC College of Pharmacists will be responsible for ensuring its registrants comply with the new regulation.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 19, 2023.
