As I walk down a poorly lit alley, I check my phone to make sure I’m at the right place. The message says to meet “Don” down the alley located east of the address provided. A pale nerdy-looking man appears out of the shadows, carrying an old hard-sided lunch cooler, and asks if I’m looking for Don.

I’m too startled to speak, so I nod.

“You got the cash?”

I nod again.

He sets the lunch cooler on a crate and says, “Okay. I got the stuff in here.”

I hold my breath as the man slides the cooler’s lid over to the side, and relax when I see it contains ice instead of a gun.

I pull a wad of cash out of my pocket as he rakes aside ice to pull out a couple soggy boxes.

He asks, “How much do you need?”

I respond in a shaky voice, “The 0.5 MG.”

“No. How many boxes?”

“Oh! Just one.”

We make the exchange. While he counts the money, I examine the box. It’s the right brand (Wegovy), the right dosage, and the box is unopened. I break the seal to verify if it contains four, single-dose injections.

The man smiles and hands me a plastic grocery bag.

“It’s a pleasure doing business with you. I can get you a discount if you buy more. Plus, we can supply other meds, and… drugs.”

He continues as we walk out the alley, “My people even take Venmo. No cards though. We keep breaking or losing the card readers.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

We reach the sidewalk and he shakes my hand before walking off into the night.

***

This transaction never took place. However, my prescription for Wegovy^® has been on backorder for 5 months, and I’m getting desperate. Almost desperate enough to consider alternative ways to get my weight-loss fix.

Several friends of mine have been prescribed the drug, but most can’t get their hands on it. The few who ARE able to fill their prescriptions are on higher doses, above 2 MG. They complain about the side effects, but are willing to grin and bear it, because they’re afraid of losing access to the medication.

Why are so many drugs in short supply nowadays? Especially, popular drugs the manufacturer must have known would be in high demand. I asked this question many times these past few months and received different responses from a local supply chain expert and Novo Nordisk.

Supply Chain Expert

An expert in supply chain management, working in the oil and natural gas industry, suggests that Novo Nordisk is practicing good capitalist techniques to focus on their bottom-line. This expert, who wishes to remain anonymous, claims the drug manufacturer has no incentive to produce more of the drug to meet demand.

He says it makes good business sense for the drug manufacturer to maintain or limit production. As demand skyrockets and supply dwindles, they can sell it at higher prices.

“Wegovy is a popular drug. It’s probably going to be the most popular drug in the history of mankind. And you know who’s going to buy it at any price? Overweight people in the upper-middle-class and the wealthy. Basically, people who can afford to live a lavish lifestyle and need a shortcut to get skinny again.

It makes good business sense.”

Novo Nordisk

Novo Nordisk’s website regarding the supply updates on Wegovy doesn’t provide much information to many questions. In fact, the company copy & pasted the same response to most of the frequently asked questions on its website[1].

I emailed the company for further comment about the supply shortage and the statement from our supply chain expert. The company provided a generic response similar to what’s posted on the website.

Novo Nordisk did not comment or refute the claim made by the supply chain expert.

***

Why are we experiencing a shortage for a drug the manufacturer knew was going to be popular across the world? Why, in this day of age?

Is it greed, like the expert says?

Or, could it be that one of the top 10 pharmaceutical and biotech companies on the planet, somehow forgot that nearly 42% of Americans are obese[2] and much of the western world has similar obesity statistics. Could that same company have mismanaged its manufacturing capacity in the face of predictable skyrocketing demand?

While this article focuses on the shortage related to the weight-loss drug, Wegovy, let’s not forget the other drug shortages. The cancer treatment shortage is the most concerning to me, and many other Americans. Cancer patients are being forced to reduce, delay, or forego effective treatments necessary for their survival.

What will happen if a drug-maker releases an effective cure for almost all cancers? It would be the most sought-after life-saving treatment in existence.

Now, consider how Wegovy has been managed. Think of the people who would die waiting on an unregulated drug company to properly forecast demand and increase production to meet an inevitable surge in demand for that hypothetical cancer drug?

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[1] Novo Nordisk USA. (2023, May 4). Updates about Wegovy®. Retrieved from Novo Nordisk: https://www.novonordisk-us.com/supply-update.html

[2] CDC. (2022, May 17). Overweight & Obesity: Adult Obesity Facts. Retrieved from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html