Reply from the Swedish Medicines Agency about the shortage of diabetes medicine
This is a debate article. It is the writer who stands for the opinions presented in the text, not Aftonbladet.
Updated 2024-04-23 07.39 | Published 2024-04-22 15.48
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REPLY. The general secretary of the National Association of Swedish Obesity writes in Aftonbladet that the Swedish Medicines Agency was wrong when patients with obesity were made scapegoats for the lack of Ozempic.
We understand Jenny Vinglid’s anger at how obese patients have been portrayed piecemeal in the media debate. But the Swedish Medicines Agency has never singled out a scapegoat, and Obesitas Sweden knows that very well.
The Swedish Medicines Agency has appealed to the medical profession “not to prescribe medicines intended for the treatment of type 2 diabetes to patients who do not have type 2 diabetes”. It as one of several measures to ensure the availability of these drugs to patients with type-2 diabetes.
What the National Board of Health and Welfare showed recently was that every fifth to sixth patient who collected these medicines in January and February 2024 did not have type 2 diabetes.
The Swedish Medicines Agency’s previous analysis over the first half of 2023 showed that roughly 20 percent of the new prescriptions of so-called GLP-1 receptor agonists, such as Ozempic, were for people without diabetes, a sharp increase from the years before when the percentage was between 5 and 10 percent.
During the current shortage situation, it would be irresponsible of the Swedish Medicines Agency not to act to protect access for patients with diseases for which the drugs are approved.
That responsibility also includes guiding prescribers based on the information and knowledge that the Swedish Medical Products Agency possesses about drug shortage situations. In addition, the Medical Products Agency continues to protect the free right to prescribe and the judgment of the individual doctor.
In the event of a shortage of medicines, the healthcare system must prioritize and promote equal care between patient groups, here individual doctors may need guidance based on the overview we have of the shortage situation.
Under the current circumstances, the Swedish Medicines Agency accepts our responsibility and we stand by our appeal to continue to only prescribe these medicines within approved indications.
Obesitas Sweden is very welcome to talk directly with the Medical Products Agency.
Veronica Arthurson, doctor, docent, director
Richard Ljung, doctor, professor, head of unit
Both at the Swedish Medicines Agency
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