Ozempic prescriptions to Americans plunge 99% in B.C. after N.S. doctor suspended
Global News
A single physician from Nova Scotia was responsible for thousands of Ozempic prescriptions being dispensed to Americans through B.C. pharmacies.
The B.C. government has announced that the number of Ozempic prescriptions being dispensed to Americans has plummeted by at least 99 per cent after the province enacted new regulations and a doctor behind an “unusually high percentage” of prescriptions was temporarily suspended.
From Jan. 1 to April 19 of this year, 30,700 Ozempic prescriptions were dispensed to U.S. residents by B.C. pharmacies. Between April 20 and May 31, that same number dropped to 111 — a 99.6 per cent reduction, according to a press release from the B.C. Ministry of Health.
The Ministry told Global News back in January that it was monitoring B.C.’s supply of Ozempic, a Type 2 diabetes drug that has made headlines for its off-label use as an obesity treatment, because of “recent social media trends and shortages in the United States.”
It appears those U.S. shortages were driving Americans to seek out the drug in Canada, driving fears that Canada would also face an Ozempic shortage as a result. During the first two months of 2023, B.C. discovered that up to 15 per cent of the drug’s prescriptions in the province were being sent south of the border.
On April 19, the province announced a new regulation that bars non-residents from buying Ozempic online and through mail-order sales. This doesn’t impact Canadians’ access to the drug, but it means that if an American wants to get an Ozempic prescription filled in B.C., they have to purchase it in person.
The regulation came after the province discovered that just two online B.C. pharmacies had filled 88 per cent of all prescriptions going to U.S. residents, and that 95 per cent of those prescriptions were being written by a single physician from Nova Scotia.
On April 6, Nova Scotia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons announced it had temporarily suspended the doctor in question, who had written at least 17,000 prescriptions for Ozempic within three months.
That doctor has been identified as Dr. David Davison, a Nova-Scotia-licensed physician based in Odessa, Texas, who graduated from Dalhousie University in 1977.
"Through this historic agreement, BC residents will receive public coverage for a range of contraceptives and diabetes medications at little to no cost."
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