{"id":644256,"date":"2026-05-02T05:15:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T05:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/644256\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T05:15:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T05:15:10","slug":"health-canada-approves-generic-ozempic-from-apotex-as-patients-and-insurers-seek-savings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/644256\/","title":{"rendered":"Health Canada approves generic Ozempic from Apotex as patients and insurers seek savings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Generic versions of semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic, have been legal in Canada as of Jan. 5.Tom Little\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Apotex Inc., Canada\u2019s largest drug maker, has won Health Canada<\/a> approval to sell a generic form of the blockbuster Ozempic.<\/p>\n

The Toronto-based company is the second manufacturer to get an approval, after India\u2019s Dr. Reddy\u2019s Laboratories Ltd.<\/a> earlier this week, but it is the first headquartered in Canada. <\/p>\n

Generic versions of semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic and its sister drug Wegovy, have been legal in Canada as of Jan. 5. The drugs are prescribed for diabetes and weight loss, respectively.<\/p>\n

Martin Ar\u00e8s, president of Apotex Canada and Rest of World, said its version of semaglutide is expected to be on pharmacy shelves within the next few weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very dedicated to bringing these affordable solutions to Canadians as soon as possible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

How will cheaper versions of Ozempic tip the scales?<\/a><\/p>\n

Ozempic, made by Danish drug maker Novo Nordisk, is by far the best-selling drug in Canada, with $2.9-billion in sales in 2025. That\u2019s more than three times the next best-selling drug, according to aggregated prescription data collected by IQVIA Canada, an analytics company.<\/p>\n

Demand has <\/a>skyrocketed<\/a> in recent years, with more than a million Canadians currently on the drug, and use is expected to go even higher as cheaper generic versions become available.<\/p>\n

Generic pricing in Canada is set out in a framework agreed to by the industry and public health plans through a body called the pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance. <\/p>\n

When two generic products are on the market, the price is set at 50 per cent of the brand-name price. That drops to 35 per cent once three or more companies are on the market. <\/p>\n

Four other manufacturers have applications to make generic semaglutide pending with Health Canada.<\/p>\n

The current list price of brand-name Ozempic is $228 for a four-week supply, not including pharmacy and distributor markups.<\/p>\n

Apotex also received tentative approval<\/a> from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in April to make generic semaglutide. The application was made in partnership with Indian pharmaceutical company Orbicular Pharmaceutical Technologies. <\/p>\n

The early approval means the FDA has done a scientific assessment of the drug, but it is not cleared for sale until legal protections expire. The main U.S. patent on Ozempic expires in 2032.<\/p>\n

Mr. Ar\u00e8s said the product reviewed by Health Canada was the same as the FDA application.<\/p>\n

Although Apotex is Canada\u2019s largest drug manufacturer, with more than 4,000 employees across five Canadian facilities, Mr. Ar\u00e8s said semaglutide will not be produced domestically. He did not specify where they would be produced.<\/p>\n

He said the drug, which comes in an injectable pen, required a special manufacturing process that Apotex did not currently have.<\/p>\n

Canadian lab explains puzzling link between semaglutide, better liver health<\/a><\/p>\n

Apotex was founded in 1974 by entrepreneur Barry Sherman and sold to U.S. private equity firm<\/a> SK Capital Partners LP in 2022 by Mr. Sherman\u2019s family after the businessman and his wife were killed.<\/p>\n

The Globe and Mail recently reported Apotex\u2019s owners are planning an initial public offering<\/a> for the company this year.<\/p>\n

Health Canada approved Apotex\u2019s semaglutide for treating patients with Type 2 diabetes. Mr. Ar\u00e8s declined to say if the company would make future submissions to treat other conditions such as weight loss.<\/p>\n

Normally, when generics enter the market, Canadian government drug plans stop reimbursing the brand-name version in favour of cheaper duplicates. That transition should be straightforward in the case of Ozempic for Type 2 diabetes, but it is less clear how public plans will approach generic copies of Wegovy, since the branded version has never been listed.<\/p>\n

Sanjeev Sockalingam, the scientific director of Obesity Canada, a non-profit patient advocacy and research group, said he hopes the arrival of cheaper generics will prod Canadian public drug plans and more private insurance plans to pay for semaglutide for weight loss.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor many patients, cost continues to be a limiting factor,\u201d Dr. Sockalingam said.<\/p>\n

New weight-loss drugs such as Ozempic can also erase people\u2019s love of food<\/a><\/p>\n

Public drug plans in every province and territory already cover brand-name Ozempic for Type 2 diabetes. The taxpayer-funded programs collectively spent $794.1-million on Ozempic in 2024, the most recent year for which the Canadian Institute for Health Information has published data. That\u2019s up from $130.5-million in 2020, when Ozempic was less popular.<\/p>\n

None of the public plans cover Wegovy, a higher-dose version of semaglutide marketed explicitly for chronic weight management. Canada\u2019s Drug Agency, which advises public drug plans on which medications to reimburse, recommended the drug<\/a> but pricing talks with Novo Nordisk broke off late last year<\/a>. <\/p>\n

In terms of private insurance, Vicky Lee, a pharmacist and the director of pharmacy consulting and professional services at TELUS Health, said that generic semaglutide \u201cshould represent a lot of cost savings to the plans and the patients,\u201d particularly on the Type 2 diabetes side. <\/p>\n

Private insurance companies and plan sponsors \u2013 companies that provide prescription drug coverage to their workers \u2013 spent more on drugs and devices for diabetes than for any other category of illness in 2025, according to a report TELUS Health released<\/a> this week. Ozempic accounted for nearly 40 per cent of that spending.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Generic versions of semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic, have been legal in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":644257,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[64,63,137,490,41183],"class_list":["post-644256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-health","tag-medication","tag-ne-i"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644256","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=644256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}