Ozempic is not being taken off the market. The drug remains fully FDA-approved for type 2 diabetes, and Novo Nordisk has no plans to discontinue it. In fact, as of February 2025, the FDA officially removed Ozempic from its drug shortage list, confirming that supply now meets or exceeds demand. If you’ve seen alarming headlines, they likely stem from related but different developments: seizures of counterfeit products, the end of cheaper compounded versions, or the planned discontinuation of a different Novo Nordisk drug.
Why the Confusion Exists
Several overlapping stories have created the impression that Ozempic might be disappearing. The FDA has seized thousands of units of counterfeit Ozempic pens found in the U.S. drug supply chain, with major seizures in December 2023, April 2025, and December 2025. These are fake products being pulled, not the real drug being recalled. The FDA is working directly with Novo Nordisk to identify and remove counterfeits, which signals the opposite of a market withdrawal.
Separately, Novo Nordisk announced it will discontinue Victoza, an older diabetes injection that uses a different active ingredient (liraglutide), across the EU by the end of 2026. Because both drugs come from the same manufacturer and treat overlapping conditions, some readers have conflated the two. Victoza is being phased out. Ozempic is not.
The Shortage Is Over
For much of 2023 and 2024, Ozempic was genuinely hard to find. Demand for semaglutide, both for diabetes and off-label weight loss, far outpaced what Novo Nordisk could manufacture. All dose strengths appeared available by October 2024, and in February 2025, the FDA formally declared the shortage resolved.
Novo Nordisk has been spending heavily to make sure supply stays stable. The company invested roughly 60 billion Danish kroner (about $8.5 billion) in manufacturing expansion in 2025 alone, including the acquisition of three former Catalent production facilities for $11.7 billion in 2024. Additional spending of around 55 billion kroner is planned for 2026, covering everything from active ingredient production to packaging. These are not the investments of a company planning to pull a product.
What Changed for Compounded Versions
The end of the shortage does have one major practical consequence: compounded semaglutide is now much harder to get legally. During the shortage, compounding pharmacies were allowed to produce their own versions of semaglutide injections at lower prices. That exception depended on the drug being listed on the FDA’s official shortage list.
Now that semaglutide is off that list, the legal landscape has shifted. Outsourcing facilities (large-scale compounding operations) can no longer produce drugs that are essentially copies of a commercially available product unless the drug appears on the shortage list or a separate “clinical need” list. Semaglutide currently appears on neither. For smaller state-licensed pharmacies, the FDA’s period of enforcement discretion for compounded semaglutide injections has also ended.
If you were getting a compounded version of semaglutide for a fraction of the brand-name price, that supply is drying up. This isn’t because Ozempic is leaving the market. It’s because Ozempic is back on the market in full force, which removes the legal basis for compounders to make copies.
Counterfeit Products to Watch For
The FDA’s counterfeit seizures are worth paying attention to, especially if you’ve purchased Ozempic outside a traditional pharmacy or through an unfamiliar online source. Counterfeit pens have been found in the legitimate U.S. drug supply chain multiple times. In some cases, several hundred units entered circulation before being identified. The FDA advises checking your product against known counterfeit identifiers, which are published on the agency’s website for each seizure event.
The counterfeits are a byproduct of enormous demand, not a sign of a problem with the real product. If you fill your prescription at a licensed pharmacy that sources from authorized distributors, your risk is low.
Ozempic’s Market Position Going Forward
Novo Nordisk sells semaglutide under two brand names: Ozempic for type 2 diabetes and Wegovy for weight management. Both were removed from the FDA shortage list at the same time, and both remain commercially available across all dose strengths. The company’s annual reports show continued investment in expanding production capacity for current and future injectable and oral products, suggesting semaglutide will remain a central part of its business for years.
The short version: Ozempic is FDA-approved, fully stocked, and actively expanding production. What is going away are the cheaper compounded alternatives that existed because of the shortage, and the counterfeit products the FDA keeps pulling from circulation.