Health Canada approves two generic versions of Ozempic<\/p>\n
Published 9:13 am Saturday, May 2, 2026<\/p>\n
Health Canada approved two generic versions of the brand-name drug Ozempic this week, and Canada is the first among the G7 countries to do so.<\/p>\n
The patent for Ozempic by Novo Nordisk expired in Canada in early January, which opened the door for generic versions of the drug. There are currently seven other submissions for generic semaglutides under review by Health Canada.<\/p>\n
Health Canada approved Dr. Reddy\u2019s Laboratories on April 28, and several days later on May 1, Canadian-based Apotex.<\/p>\n
Martin Ar\u00e8s, President, Apotex Canada and Rest of World (ROW), said, \u201cThis approval reflects our Canadian roots and our commitment to improving access to medicines. As a Canadian-based global pharmaceutical company, we are proud to bring forward a high-quality, affordable alternative that supports patients, prescribers, and the long-term sustainability of our healthcare system. We look forward to bringing this product to market in the very near future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Health Canada notes that generic medication is often 45 to 90 percent cheaper than brand-name versions. This is expected to help many Canadians using the medication who are paying hundreds of dollars out of pocket every month for it.<\/p>\n
The semaglutide injection is for adults with type 2 diabetes, but is often prescribed to help obese patients with weight loss.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe generic versions of semaglutide are complex synthetic products that are pharmaceutically equivalent to the brand-name biologic drug. Health Canada\u2019s review ensures that differences between these products do not affect the safety, efficacy, or quality of the drug,\u201d reads a Health Canada news release. \u201cThe availability of generic drugs is expected to have a positive impact in Canada, including potential cost savings for patients and the healthcare system.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Health Canada approves two generic versions of Ozempic Published 9:13 am Saturday, May 2, 2026 Health Canada approved…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":657325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[49,48,84,377],"class_list":["post-657324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-medication"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=657324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}