Belgium plans to temporarily ban the drug Ozempic (semaglutide) for the treatment of obesity. The decision is aimed at preserving the drug's availability for patients with type 2 diabetes.
Top-down ban on Ozempic for obesity treatment?
Published Oct. 25, 2023 15:52
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- [Last month] we appealed to doctors to use this drug only in patients with type 2 diabetes. Today we see that this strategy has not worked," said Franck Vandenbroucke, Belgian Health Minister. - I know that this drug can also be useful in people suffering from pathological obesity, so, of course, we need to talk about it. But I am convinced that we now need to send a stronger message, because simple recommendations are not enough," the ministry chief added.
The Belgian government plans to meet with the national drug availability working group to discuss the situation in detail. According to Vandenbroucke, a possible ban could last for several weeks or months, depending on the manufacturer's production capacity and the real availability of the drug.
If the announced decision goes into effect, Belgium will not be the first country in Europe to top-down restrict the availability of semaglutide - in July this year, the United Kingdom banned Ozempic for people without type 2 diabetes. The UK banned Ozempic for people without type 2 diabetes.
The announcement of the restrictions has put the health ministry in conflict with the Belgian Association of Medical Associations (Absym). The association questions the restriction of physicians' therapeutic freedom and notes the complexity of balancing drug supply and patient demand in a globally interconnected healthcare system.
From Absym's side, the argument about the "sanctity" of therapeutic freedom, understood not only as the autonomy of doctors, but also their right to make decisions tailored to individual patients' needs, rings particularly strong. Top-down restrictions on the use of semaglutide violate this freedom, reducing the range of treatment options available to obese patients.
Absym suggests an alternative solution: banning parallel exports of the drug, a practice that often exacerbates a country's drug shortage. The association also suggests reimbursing other drugs used to treat obesity, such as Saxenda (liraglutide), highlighting the fact that obesity and type 2 diabetes are closely linked, with the former often preceding the latter. By facilitating access to obesity drugs, the epidemic of type 2 diabetes could be slowed down, Absym experts point out.
Source: BNN Network
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