A major pharmaceutical company based in South Africa is positioning itself to enter the Canadian market with a generic alternative to the widely-used diabetes medication Ozempic, with regulatory approval potentially coming as early as late spring.
Stephen Saad, chief executive of Aspen Pharmacare, announced Tuesday that his company’s unbranded equivalent of Novo Nordisk’s blockbuster diabetes treatment could receive Canadian registration within the next few months.
“We’re getting feedback from the regulators. From what we can see, we could have a registration in late Q2 or Q3 of this calendar year, so some time between May and September,” Saad explained during an interview.
The South African pharmaceutical giant is positioning itself to become among the earliest companies to offer generic alternatives to Ozempic in the Canadian marketplace. This opportunity arose after Novo Nordisk’s exclusive patent protection for semaglutide, the active compound in diabetes treatment, lapsed in January.
The development could potentially provide Canadian patients with more affordable access to this diabetes medication that has gained significant popularity in recent years.
