{"id":573317,"date":"2026-05-08T17:46:29","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T17:46:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/573317\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T17:46:29","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T17:46:29","slug":"canada-approves-2nd-generic-version-of-semaglutide-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/573317\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada approves 2nd generic version of semaglutide – National"},"content":{"rendered":"

The second generic version of semaglutide<\/a> \u2014 the medication in brand-name drugs like Ozempic<\/a>\u00a0and Wegovy<\/a> \u2014 has been approved by Health Canada, this one manufactured by Canadian company Apotex.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Health Canada approved the first generic version of Ozempic<\/a> Tuesday night. The first generic semaglutide<\/a> \u2013 the active ingredient in Novo Nordisk\u2019s Ozempic \u2013 is being manufactured by Dr. Reddy\u2019s Laboratories<\/a> in India and is approved for the once-weekly treatment of Type 2 diabetes in adults.<\/p>\n

Canada is the first G7 country to authorize generic semaglutide. There are now seven other submissions currently under review for generic semaglutide by different companies.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike existing products, this semaglutide injection is indicated for the once-weekly treatment of adult patients with type 2 diabetes to manage blood sugar levels,\u201d Health Canada\u2019s press release<\/a> states.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

Dr. Hertzel Gerstein, a professor in the medicine department at McMaster University and a diabetes physician, has told Global News<\/a> that there is not much difference between name-brand and generic semaglutide drugs.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Click<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t0:44
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHealth Canada approves 1st generic version of Ozempic\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Health Canada approves a generic version of a drug, they go through a very rigorous process and ensure that the drug that they\u2019re approving is as close to the original drug chemically as it can possibly be,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that they\u2019ve [Health Canada] approved it should reassure most people that if they\u2019re using one of these generic drugs, it should be a very similar, if not identical, effect as would be if they would take the original, copied drug.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMore on Health
\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

The agency is expected to make regulatory decisions on more of these submissions in the coming weeks and months.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tPrice of generic versions of semaglutide drug will be ’45 to 90 per cent cheaper’\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

According to Felix, a Canadian integrated health-care platform,\u00a0the average cost of Ozempic injections<\/a>\u00a0can be between $200 and $450 per month, depending on each Canadian province.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Receive<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tGet weekly health news<\/p>\n

Receive the latest medical news and health information delivered to you every Sunday.<\/p>\n

Wegovy\u2019s current list price is expected to cost $5,066 per patient per year<\/a>, or roughly $400 per month.<\/p>\n

Health Canada has stated that many generic medications are 45 to 90 per cent cheaper than the brand name versions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe numbers I\u2019ve heard are anywhere from like $40 to $80,\u201d Dana Small, a neurology and neurosurgery professor at McGill University, said to Global News. \u201cThat\u2019s a major decrease in cost.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The second generic version of semaglutide \u2014 the medication in brand-name drugs like Ozempic\u00a0and Wegovy \u2014 has been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":573318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[626,1319,196104,102,6591,16839,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-573317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-canada","tag-consumer","tag-generic-semaglutide","tag-health","tag-medication","tag-semaglutide","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/573318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}