Prognosis
Zepbound Patients Have a Solution for Obesity Drug Shortage: ‘Release the Vials’
Eli Lilly’s weight-loss shot isn’t in short supply because there’s not enough medicine, but because of the complexity of making injector pens.
Weight-loss drugs have gone in and out of supply over the last few years as they’ve swelled in popularity.
Photographer: Shelby Knowles/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Patients struggling to get their hands on the hard-to-find weight-loss shot Zepbound have a solution for drugmaker Eli Lilly & Co.: Release the vials.
Zepbound isn’t in short supply because there’s a lack of medicine — but rather the pre-filled pens that patients use to inject the right dose of the drug. Making that device requires “some of the most complex” production systems “on the planet,” Lilly Chief Executive Officer David Ricks said in an interview with Bloomberg News last August.