Ozempic and Other Weight-Loss Wonder Drugs at Risk as Port Strike Threatens Pharmaceutical Supply Chain
Major drug manufacturers use air freight to deliver vital drug ingredients to the states.
The longshoreman’s strike shutting down ports along the East and Gulf Coasts may cause a significant shortage of widely used weight-loss wonder drugs like Wegovy, Mounjaro, and Ozempic.
With half of all trade coming through America coming to a halt due to a work stoppage from the International Longshoremen’s Association at ports of call stretching to Texas from Maine, customs data shows that the East Coast and Norfolk, Virginia’s port, in particular, is a crucial delivery mechanism for drug components and medical devices, according to a report from CNBC.
“Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly are both heavily reliant on the Port of Norfolk,” the director of Research at ImportGenius, which tracks the customs data, William George, told the news outlet.
In the past year, the Port of Norfolk has seen more than 400 shipping containers worth of pharmaceuticals and fill-injection devices containing semaglutide, the active compound found in the popular weight-loss drugs, shipped by Novo Nordisk.
“Novo fine syringes commonly used for insulin injections come into the U.S. by ocean freight as well,” Mr. George said.
The strike comes at a vital time for drug manufacturing. Nearly half of the active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) used to manufacture prescription drugs in America come from India and Europe. Without these APIs, many drugs cannot be produced.
“The strike by ILA at East and Gulf Coast ports could impact the importation and distribution of medications like Ozempic,” the chief executive and President of Nuco Logistics, pharmaceutical import and export company, Noushin Shamsili, told CNBC on Monday as the news of the upcoming strike was looming, “Potential effects of the strike include supply chain disruptions, increased shipping costs, inventory shortages of APIs, and production delays.”
“Almost all of this industry is just on time. Raw materials are being brought in to complete drug manufacturing.”
A spokesman for Novo Nordisk, which makes Ozempic and Wegovy, said in an e-mail to the financial news channel that they are putting plans into place to mitigate production disruption.
“We plan to ship our products to and from the U.S. via airfreight,” the spokesman said.
Officials for Eli Lilly, which produces Mounjaro and Zepbound, declined to comment on their plans to combat issues related to the strike.
