Capital Region diabetes patient and pharmacist react to ongoing drug shortage

CAPITAL REGION, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- The FDA reports diabetes medications like Ozempic and Trulicity still face a shortage months after viral social media trends pushed them into the weight loss spotlight.

Tony Murray of Richmondville says managing his Type 2 diabetes is a full time job that's made even harder without his high-dosage Trulicity which has been out of stock since November.

"The reason they told me then was because we’re a small town here, high doses are going to the big cities," Murray tells NEWS10's Mikhaela Singleton.

He says his doctor has tried managing his diabetes through a mix of four or five replacement medications, but they’re not ideal when managing his heart disease--not to mention the cost.

"You’re talking $250 plus a month just for those medicines, okay? And then you add in the cost of my other medicines for my heart and everything, I’m spending well over $300 a month," Murray says.

"The insulin makes me gain weight, which with my heart disease I do not need. They can't put me on the low-dose Trulicity--I tried that--but the problem with that is, I'd need to use more to get the correct dosage and my insurance won't cover that," he goes on to say.

Daniel Lange, Pharmacist and Co-owner of Lange’s Pharmacy in Niskayuna, says his and many other drug stores still experience the hit or miss caused by the shortages.

"We don’t get notified until we order them. So a lot of the time we’ll actually place an order, and we won’t even know we’re not getting it until the next day," Lange explains.

He says the drug manufacturers still haven’t caught up to the influx of new patients.

"They were prepared to give it to diabetics and then that’s how much they made. Now all of a sudden, you’re not only using it for diabetics, you’ve got people that are using it for weight loss too, and they just weren’t prepared for the increase in patients," he says.

Which means the only answer is to sit and wait. Murray asks doctors and dietitians prescribing these medications for weight loss to put themselves in a diabetics’ shoes.

"I feel like the medical community right now doesn’t even care about us at all. They don’t care if we get sick and die—which diabetes kills a lot of people every year," Murray says.