In this portray illustration, containers of the diabetes drug Ozempic relaxation on a pharmacy counter on April 17, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
Mario Tama | Getty Pictures
Novo Nordisk on Tuesday sued five medical spas and wellness clinics for allegedly promoting more cost effective, unauthorized variations of the company’s weight reduction capsules Ozempic and Wegovy.
The Danish drugmaker initiated the complaints in federal courts in New York, Texas, Florida and Tennessee, in line with complaints obtained by CNBC.
The suits accused the spas and clinics of promoting and promoting “compounded” drug products that snarl to have semaglutide, the active ingredient in both Ozempic and Wegovy. Compounded capsules are personalized variations of a therapy that are no longer accepted by the Meals and Drug Administration.
Novo Nordisk is the only real real patent holder of semaglutide and does no longer promote that ingredient to outdoor entities. It be unclear what the spas and clinics are basically promoting to buyers.
Novo Nordisk requested the courts for orders blocking off the gross sales of the unauthorized capsules and an unspecified amount of cash damages.
“These illegal marketing and gross sales practices, along with the usage of Novo Nordisk trademarks in reference to those practices, maintain created a high concern of user confusion and deception as effectively as potential security concerns,” the company wrote in a press originate Tuesday.
The spas and clinics named in the complaints embody Pro Health Investments, Champion Health & Wellness Clinics and Flawless Image Scientific Aesthetics.
It also entails Effinger Health, which operates as Nuvida Rx Weight Loss, and Ekzotika Corp., which is doing industry as Cosmetic Laser Professionals Med Spa. The latter health center provides a $30 Groupon for a one-week “semaglutide weight administration program.”
The spas and clinics did now not straight respond to CNBC’s requests for comment.
The suits come amid an absence of Wegovy and Ozempic, which has resulted in a train in compounded decisions that snarl to be the licensed injections.
The FDA final month warned about the protection dangers of unauthorized variations of Ozempic and Wegovy after experiences emerged of harmful effectively being reactions to compounded variations of the capsules.
A total lot of states maintain also threatened to take lawful motion in opposition to compounding pharmacies that function or distribute unapproved adaptations of Novo Nordisk’s weight reduction treatments.
