An injection pen of Zepbound, Eli Lilly's weight loss drug, is displayed on December 11, 2023 in New York City, United States.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Most doses of Eli LillyHugely popular weight-loss drug Zepbound and diabetes counterpart Mounjaro will be in short supply in the second quarter of this year as demand increases, according to an update to the Food and Drug Administration's drug shortage database on Wednesday.
All doses of Zepbound and Mounjaro except the 2.5-milligram versions of both treatments are in short supply. An earlier update said some doses of both drugs would be in limited supply through April.
The new update suggests that insatiable demand for a popular class of weight loss and diabetes drugs is still undermining supply, even as Eli Lilly and its main competitor, Novo Nordiskare working to increase production of these treatments.
Many patients are struggling to find injectable treatments, which have surged in demand because they can help them lose significant pounds over time. These treatments are sometimes called incretin medications, which mimic gut hormones to suppress appetite and regulate blood sugar.
“We recognize that this situation may cause disruption to people’s treatment plans, and that is what we are doing.”
“We are working diligently and urgently to meet the surge in demand,” an Eli Lilly spokesperson said in a statement to CNBC. The company expects its investments in manufacturing and delivery capabilities to “gradually increase production of our medicines throughout 2024 and beyond,” they said.
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Eli Lilly said in February it had met its goal of doubling production capacity for such incretin drugs by the end of 2023. The company said it would expand production with “equal urgency” this year, with the most significant increases coming in the second half of the year.
By then, the company expects production of salable doses of incretin drugs to be at least 1.5 times higher than in the second half of 2023.
Eli Lilly also announced that a new facility in Concord, North Carolina, will begin producing incretin drugs as early as the end of the year, with products expected to ship in 2025. The company will also build a handful of additional facilities later this year over the next few years, including a site in Germany and two new plants in its home state of Indiana.
Novo Nordisk has announced similar efforts. According to the FDA's website, some doses of the weight-loss drug Wegovy and its diabetes counterpart Ozempic are also in short supply.
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