Dutch doctors prescribing Ozempic more often; mostly for diabetes, also for weight loss

Dutch doctors’ prescriptions for the diabetes drug Ozempic increased significantly between 2019 and 2023. Dutch GPs mostly prescribed the drug for treating diabetes, but the number of off-label prescriptions to treat obesity also increased, according to a study by Nivel.

In 2019, 0.8 per 1,000 people registered with their GP were prescribed Ozempic. Last year, that had increased to 6.3 per 1,000 people. The number of off-label prescriptions, when a doctor prescribes a medicine to treat something other than its original purpose, also increased from 0 percent in 2019 to 1.4 percent in 2023.

Ozempic, with the active agreement semaglutide, is a drug intended to treat type 2 diabetes, but it has also proven very effective in promoting weight loss. Off-label prescriptions, therefore, increased worldwide, leading to a shortage of semaglutide and concerns that diabetes patients won’t have access to the medicine they need. It has also resulted in many illegal sales of the drug and an increase in overdoses in the Netherlands.

Novo Nordisk, the pharmaceutical company behind Ozempic, also launched Wegovoy, which has the same active ingredient but is marketed for weight loss. The Dutch Healthcare Institute recently advised against covering Wegovy in the basic health insurance package. According to the Healthcare Institute, there are too many uncertainties about the medicine's long-term health effects. It also worries about how many people will qualify for the drug and what that will cost.