Patients are traveling more than 1,000 miles to fill prescriptions for weight loss drugs amid national shortages and a sprint to slim down for summer.
Doctors told DailyMail.com they are struggling to keep up with demand for Wegovy and Ozempic, while the FDA reports Mounjaro and Zepbound are expected to be out of stock until at least July.
Dr Angela Fitch, an obesity medicine expert in New York City, said she has had patients fly in from as far afield as Florida, Virginia and Ohio to fill prescriptions.
She has also had others who have driven to her from Maine, a distance of about 400 miles — or seven hours in the car.
Marlee Bruno, who works at Medspa Mind, Body and Soul Medical in Pensacola, Florida, told DailyMail.com that people are looking to boost their weight-loss goals to get beach ready.
Among those to have used Ozempic to lose weight was Real Housewives of Orange County star Emily Simpson, 47, who lost 40lbs on the drug last year
Pictured above is Anna, from Alabama, who lost 50lbs after using Wegovy last summer
Among the patients struggling to fill a script is Tara Dykens from Massachusetts who said finding Zepbound was ‘very frustrating’. ‘I didn’t want to mess it up. I didn’t want to miss doses,’ she added.
Other patients have taken to posting tearful videos on social media when they fill their prescriptions, or empty boxes worrying about getting their next dose.
Ms Bruno told DailyMail.com they have had patients drive out of state to get their doses from her clinic.
‘We do try and ship it to patients, but this does increase costs and some of them want to get the named brands,’ she said.
‘We have patients who drove into Alabama and into Mississippi from here to get Mounjaro, so that’s at least a hundred miles.’
Because of the shortages, pharmacies are able to make compound versions — or their own doses — of the drugs.
But many patients are still opting for the brand name versions because they believe they will be more effective for weight loss.
Those who have previously used the drugs to get summer ready include Emily Simpson, 47, from the Real Housewives of Orange County, who lost 40lbs on the drug and was so confident that she posted a snap of herself in a bikini.
Patients are sharing their frustration over being unable to get hold of their doses of Wegovy, Zepbound and other weight loss drugs online
UK TV personality Charlotte Dawson, 31, showed off her incredible 19lbs weight loss as she prepares to get bikini body ready for her holiday eight months postpartum in latest Instagram post on Saturday. She has not confirmed whether she used a weight loss drug
Others to use weight loss drugs to fit into a bikini last year include Anna, from Alabama, who lost 50lbs after taking Wegovy.
Asked what was behind the surge in demand, Bruno blamed the approach of summer.
‘We are in Florida, where it is practically already summer,’ she said, ‘and people are starting to get into their bikinis and really want to get on the drug so they can lose weight quickly.
‘It is possible to lose a significant amount of weight fast on these’, she added.
‘As standard, patients lose about 1lb a week — but it tends to be a little bit more than that.
‘After three months, they may have lost at least 12lbs of fat, which is a significant loss and makes many patients feel much better.’
She warned against ‘double dosing’ to try to speed weight loss, however, saying this would result in ‘terrible side effects’ for patients such as problems with bowel movements, diarrhea and constipation.
Patients caught in the shortage include Ms Dykens, who is struggling to fill her prescription of Zepbound.
She told GMA: ‘In one given afternoon, I believe I tried to contact between 20 and 25 pharmacies [to get the medication].’
The above shows how Zepbound works and how Wegovy works
Zepbound a new breakthrough weight loss drug is in shortage across the US, health authorities say
Another patient called Hannah Rose, based in Washington State, said she had been searching every pharmacy up to 100miles from her trying to get doses.
‘On Saturday, not one in a hundred miles had [Zepbound],’ she said, ‘but today, they had it in two stores!’.
Another patient, called Celeste and from the US, posted a tearful video online this month when she managed to fill her Zepbound prescription.
And patient Tiana, also from the US and who has lost 40lbs on the drug, described it as a ‘mission’ when she drove 8miles to a CVS to grab her doses.
Eli Lilly — which is behind Mounjaro and Zepbound — has said that shortages of its drugs could last into 2025.
The group’s vice president, Rhonda Pacheco, said: ‘For the near term, we are going to be in this limited availability — which may cause delays across some of the doses for both Mounjaro and Zepbound.
‘We are working so hard every day to make sure that we increase that capacity as fast as we can to get these medications into patients’ hands.’
Lilly is planning to open a new manufacturing facility in Concord, North Carolina, by the end of the year to boost production.
Novo Nordisk — which makes Ozempic and Wegovy — opened a new manufacturing facility in Clayton, North Carolina, last year to expand supply.
