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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":"Listen to this article Estimated 2 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":643789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[64,63,137,490],"class_list":["post-643788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-health","tag-medication"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=643788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/643789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}