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Novo Nordisk's Canadian Mistake

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Re: Novo Nordisk's Canadian Mistake

#41

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

glp1guide wrote: post #35

Not only that, there is a legitimate raft of companies lining up to make generics. There’s one wrinkle though, legally importing prescription drugs from Canada isn’t really allowed in the US/UK AFAIK. HIMS is probably feverishly figuring out how to do that right now. Shameless plug: https://glp1guide.substack.com/p/another-glp1-generic-launch... Also somewhat separately, injectable GLP1s are about to be upstaged by o…

> Also somewhat separately, injectable GLP1s are about to be upstaged by oral variants — orfoglipron for Eli Lilly and the Wegovy Pill for Novo.

I believe that this gets a new patent, and will probably be a huge seller.

Re: Novo Nordisk's Canadian Mistake

#42

Post by stevehawk »

gpt5 wrote: post #18
jzebedee wrote: post #4

> Prof. Michael Hoffman from Toronto put me on to the Canadian Patent Database, where you can find that Novo did file a patent there for semaglutide. . .but the last time they paid the annual maintenance fee on it was 2018! > You can even find a letter where their lawyers send a refund request for the 2017 maintenance fee ($250) because Novo apparently wanted some more time to see if they wanted to pay it. > On the s…

Canadian manufacturers (Sandoz and Apotex) are preparing to launch their own generic versions in early 2026. I bet many Americans would travel to Canada to buy it there (despite the legality concerns). The medications lasts 2 years in a refrigerator.

the shelf life is probably longer than that if you buy it in dehydrated form and don't hydrate it (but i have no idea)

Re: Novo Nordisk's Canadian Mistake

#43

Post by daniel_iversen »

themafia wrote: post #27
rootusrootus wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're going to go for a two year supply, it's probably better to just risk shipping it. You're not going to come home with that much without it getting confiscated, and you're way more likely to be searched individually than a typical package is.

You should be able to travel with a 90 day supply without issue.

Not an American but there’s only very limited circumstances you can travel across the border home to the USA with foreign prescription drugs, right? And this scenario wouldn’t cover it. Unless you just meant they won’t get caught or maybe not fined or confiscated in practice? :)

Re: Novo Nordisk's Canadian Mistake

#44

Post by alister »

> Interviewer at Endpoints: You plan to potentially launch a generic GLP-1 in Canada and Brazil in 2026.

Looking at the original interview on Endpoints, Sandoz CEO Richard Saynor says this about Brazil:

In Brazil, the biggest prescribers are dentists. Everyone says, “Why dentists?” They do aesthetic work, and then you have your Botox, and then you want a bikini body. It’s behaving like an OTC consumer brand. Imagine selling this, rather than $300, at $50. Anybody over the age of 40 in Brazil will probably want to be on that.

But he doesn't explain how they got around the patents. Another comment on HN says they expire in July 2026, but can anyone explain why the patents expire so soon in Brazil?

Re: Novo Nordisk's Canadian Mistake

#45

Post by general1465 »

jzebedee wrote: post #4

> Prof. Michael Hoffman from Toronto put me on to the Canadian Patent Database, where you can find that Novo did file a patent there for semaglutide. . .but the last time they paid the annual maintenance fee on it was 2018! > You can even find a letter where their lawyers send a refund request for the 2017 maintenance fee ($250) because Novo apparently wanted some more time to see if they wanted to pay it. > On the s…

This is impressive feat of bean counting. To save few thousand dollars, they lost market of few billion dollars. Good job.

Re: Novo Nordisk's Canadian Mistake

#46

Post by eek2121 »

dawnerd wrote: post #36
rootusrootus wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have a prescription from a provider in Canada, the limit for personal use is 90 days. As long as it is a legal drug in the US -- which I don't think necessarily includes that it's patented here, just that it's approved by the FDA. > There's already a huge market for illegal compounds and GPL-1 drugs are available alongside the usual testosterone and other steroids. The peptide and oils markets are both big, bu…

Flights to Canada can be pretty cheap too. Less than the cost of one month so if you flew out every 90 days you’d still come out ahead. Practically not enough people will do this of course. Would be great for people in the border towns though.

I don't know about that, Canada is a beautiful country. If I were on the meds, I wouldn't hesitate to fly out for a day trip every 90 days.

Also, let's be real, anyone in the northeast could be there in a few hours driving. New York City is about 7 hours away from Ottawa, for example.

Re: Novo Nordisk's Canadian Mistake

#47

Post by toomuchtodo »

daniel_iversen wrote: post #43
themafia wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should be able to travel with a 90 day supply without issue.

Not an American but there’s only very limited circumstances you can travel across the border home to the USA with foreign prescription drugs, right? And this scenario wouldn’t cover it. Unless you just meant they won’t get caught or maybe not fined or confiscated in practice? :)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45638316

Re: Novo Nordisk's Canadian Mistake

#48

Post by Emphere »

rahimnathwani wrote: post #20

AIUI, because they let the patent expire, the drug was not subject to price regulation by the government. So they could charge whatever. And during most of that time, they were still protected by 'data exclusivity' which means that any generic producer could not get approved without doing their own clinical trials, until 8 years had passed. So they gave up some period of exclusivity in return for being able to charge…

Thanks, can you point to where you found this info?

Re: Novo Nordisk's Canadian Mistake

#49

Post by dlcarrier »

0cf8612b2e1e wrote: post #30

I had never considered it-what makes a drug prescription vs OTC? Every substance has safety concerns(dose makes the poison), so with a lot of the financial gone, will the GLPs ever not require a prescription?

In the US, prescription and OTC are theoretically completely unrelated, but in practice patent holders want their drugs to be prescription, where end users aren't involved in the process of selecting or paying for the drug, whereas generic manufacturers want the drugs to be OTC, where end users are choosing the product in a competitive market.

See, for example, Prilosec (Omeprazole) switching from prescription to OTC.

Re: Novo Nordisk's Canadian Mistake

#50

Post by c2h5oh »

rootusrootus wrote: post #24
gpt5 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Canadian manufacturers (Sandoz and Apotex) are preparing to launch their own generic versions in early 2026. I bet many Americans would travel to Canada to buy it there (despite the legality concerns). The medications lasts 2 years in a refrigerator.

If you're going to go for a two year supply, it's probably better to just risk shipping it. You're not going to come home with that much without it getting confiscated, and you're way more likely to be searched individually than a typical package is.

With de minimis for US-bound packages suspended I suspect way more packages are inspected than used to be.
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