The Well being Ministry ordered the well being funds to not prescribe the favored drug Ozempic for the therapy of weight problems. “You shouldn’t proceed to order using Ozempic for the indication of treating weight problems, which isn’t the aim it’s registered for,” wrote Eli Marom, deputy director of the Pharmacy Division on the Well being Ministry (the place of Director of the Division has not been stuffed for nearly two years), on Wednesday in a letter to the managers of the medical health insurance funds.
Diabetics will be capable to proceed receiving prescriptions for Ozempic, he mentioned.
The letter additionally mentioned that: “Sufferers who’re being handled with the Ozempic preparation ought to be referred to the attending doctor for a prescription for weight problems therapy, so as to change the therapy to a registered preparation.”
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Ozempic is a self-injectable therapy
(Picture: Shutterstock)
The background for the choice is the introduction of one other drug, Wegovy, which can value the sufferers rather more. Ozempic is meant for diabetics and has additionally entered the medical providers basket. Nevertheless, each medication will not be within the basket for weight problems. Till it was added to the basket, an Ozempic injection was given within the supplementary insurances of the well being funds.
The Wegovy injection produced by Novo-Nordisk (the identical producer of Ozempic) lately arrived in pharmacies in Israel. It comprises the very same energetic ingredient because the Ozempic, Semaglutide, however in a dose virtually two and a half instances larger (2.4 mg in comparison with 1 mg). Wegovy, not like Ozempic, is registered in Israel as a therapy for weight reduction.
Wegovy, like Ozempic, is a once-weekly, self-injectable subcutaneous injection. To be able to attain the beneficial and glued dose of Wegovy, which is 2.4 mg as soon as every week, 4 months of gradual adaptation to the drug (in comparison with two months with Ozempic) should be achieved by regularly rising the dose. The objective is to keep away from potential unwanted side effects – primarily nausea, diarrhea or constipation, fuel, heartburn and belly discomfort, which normally are inclined to go regularly.
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Wegovy is authorized for weight reduction
(Picture: Novo nordisk through AP)
“Till this letter, within the State of Israel there have been two remedies for weight problems. Saxenda, which is a registered drug that’s given as soon as a day, and Ozeampic, which is meant for diabetics but additionally causes weight reduction and is run for the therapy of weight problems,” based on Professor Shlomo Vinker, head of the drugs division at Leumit Well being Companies.
“When a health care provider offers a therapy that’s not on the registered label, he declares that the affected person has exhausted the prevailing remedies. Till right now, the therapy with Saxenda ought to have been exhausted. Since this can be a privately requested drug, we don’t know what the variety of customers is, however it’s most likely tens of hundreds. This directive actually, says {that a} new drugs for the therapy of weight problems, Wegovy, has been registered, and from the second this drugs is registered, it’s not doable to present the therapy with Ozempic with out exhausting the therapy with Wegoby,” he added.
“That is vital as a result of now we have hundreds of sufferers in Israel who obtain this drugs and tomorrow they will not be capable to obtain it and should change to obtain Wegovy therapy. All the market that has been as much as right now a whole lot of sufferers should change to Wegovy with the wave of a letter alone. It’s truly the identical substance, however Wegovy prices much more.”