The semaglutide shortage in the United States is officially over. The FDA declared the shortage of semaglutide injection products resolved in February 2025, covering all dose strengths of both Ozempic (used for type 2 diabetes) and Wegovy (used for weight management). Oral semaglutide tablets, sold as Rybelsus, were never part of the shortage. That said, the end of the formal shortage has triggered significant changes in how the drug is made and sold, and some ripple effects are still playing out.
How the Shortage Started
The semaglutide shortage began in 2022 and persisted through much of 2024. The core problem was straightforward: demand exploded while manufacturing couldn’t keep up. Semaglutide was originally approved for type 2 diabetes, but once Wegovy gained approval for weight loss and the drugs went viral on social media, prescriptions surged far beyond what Novo Nordisk’s factories could produce. In the UK, health officials determined the supply issues were “largely driven by off-label prescribing for weight loss which caused a large global increase in demand.”
The shortage affected patients unevenly. People with diabetes who depended on Ozempic to manage blood sugar sometimes couldn’t fill their prescriptions because supply was being absorbed by weight-loss demand. Starter doses of Wegovy were particularly hard to find, which meant new patients couldn’t begin treatment even when their doctors prescribed it. Multiple countries responded with restrictions. The UK added semaglutide and related drugs to a list of medicines that cannot be exported or hoarded, and issued safety alerts directing clinicians not to prescribe diabetes-licensed versions for weight loss.
What “Resolved” Actually Means
The FDA’s February 2025 declaration means that Novo Nordisk confirmed it can supply all dose strengths of Ozempic and Wegovy to meet national demand. Every pen configuration, from the lowest starter doses to the full maintenance doses, has been removed from the official drug shortage list. In practical terms, your pharmacy should be able to order and stock semaglutide without the backorder issues that defined the previous two years.
That doesn’t mean every pharmacy will have every dose on the shelf at all times. Localized supply hiccups can still happen, particularly at pharmacies with high demand or those that don’t order frequently. But the systemic, nationwide shortage where entire dose strengths were unavailable for weeks is over.
What This Means for Compounded Versions
During the shortage, compounding pharmacies were legally permitted to produce their own versions of semaglutide. Under federal law, when a drug appears on the FDA’s shortage list, pharmacies operating under specific regulatory frameworks can compound copies of that drug. For individual compounding pharmacies, the usual restriction against making “essentially copies” of commercially available drugs doesn’t apply during a shortage. Larger outsourcing facilities could also use bulk semaglutide ingredient to manufacture the drug at scale.
Now that semaglutide is off the shortage list, those legal permissions have changed. Semaglutide no longer appears on the FDA’s drug shortage list, which means outsourcing facilities can no longer use bulk ingredient to produce it. Individual compounding pharmacies face tighter restrictions as well, limited to producing compounded versions only when a prescriber documents that the compounded product contains a meaningful change from the commercial version for a specific patient. The FDA has stated plainly that both semaglutide and tirzepatide (the active ingredient in Mounjaro and Zepbound) “do not currently appear on the 503B bulks list or on FDA’s drug shortage list.”
If you’ve been using a compounded version of semaglutide, this is worth paying attention to. The supply of compounded semaglutide is expected to shrink as enforcement catches up with the policy change, and you may need to transition to the brand-name product.
Novo Nordisk’s Manufacturing Expansion
Novo Nordisk has been spending aggressively to prevent a repeat of the shortage. The company’s capital expenditure on manufacturing hit roughly 60 billion Danish kroner (about $8.5 billion) in 2025, up from 47 billion the year before. That money is going toward expanding production of the active ingredient itself, building out sterile fill-and-finish lines where the drug gets loaded into injection pens, and increasing packaging capacity. The company also acquired three manufacturing sites from Catalent, a contract manufacturer, to bring more production in-house.
Spending is expected to remain high, around 55 billion kroner in 2026, reflecting ongoing construction and scaling. These investments cover both current injectable products and future oral formulations. Novo Nordisk recently gained approval for an oral version of Wegovy (a daily pill), which could help distribute demand across different product formats and reduce pressure on the injectable supply chain.
Counterfeit Products Remain a Risk
One lasting consequence of the shortage is a counterfeit semaglutide problem that hasn’t gone away even as legitimate supply has stabilized. The FDA has issued multiple warnings and seized thousands of counterfeit Ozempic pens that made it into the legitimate U.S. drug supply chain, not just from sketchy online sellers, but through actual wholesalers and retail pharmacies.
In December 2025, the FDA seized dozens of counterfeit Ozempic 1 mg pens labeled with lot number PAR1229, a number that also belongs to a real batch, making them harder to spot. Earlier in April 2025, several hundred counterfeit units with lot number PAR0362 were identified and seized. A 2023 seizure of thousands of units found that even the needles were counterfeit, meaning their sterility couldn’t be confirmed, raising the risk of infection.
The counterfeits can look convincing. The FDA advises checking small details on the pen label. For the most recent counterfeit batch, the giveaway was the position of the “EXP/LOT” text: on fakes, it appeared to the left of the expiration date and lot number, while authentic pens have that text printed above those details. If you receive semaglutide and something looks off about the packaging, labeling, or pen construction, check the FDA’s drug alerts page for the latest lot numbers flagged as counterfeit.
The Global Picture
While the U.S. shortage is resolved, the global situation is more uneven. Medicine shortages broadly have been rising across Europe and Canada for years, and semaglutide has been part of that trend. The EU’s 2025 Strategic Report from the Critical Medicines Alliance noted that shortages of critical medicines have been increasing “in Europe and globally.” Canada has similarly reported growing drug shortage challenges.
The UK took some of the most aggressive steps to manage supply during the crisis, including banning exports, issuing national safety alerts, and fast-tracking alternative products like Mounjaro (tirzepatide) and biosimilar versions of older weight-loss drugs to spread demand across more products. The UK also made oral semaglutide available in larger quantities so new patients could start treatment without competing for injectable supply. These measures helped stabilize the situation, but availability in some regions remains tighter than in the U.S.
If you’re outside the United States, your local supply status may differ from the FDA’s determination. Check with your country’s health authority or pharmacy for the most current availability in your area.