Novo Nordisk's (NVO.US) chief financial officer Karsten Munk Knudsen said on Wednesday that the company was aware of 100 hospitalizations and 10 deaths related to the company's popular weight loss and diabetes drugs in combination with generic copies.
Knudsen said the company had been monitoring "some combination products in the market and found multiple safety issues" as well as reports of hospitalizations and deaths.
Last month, Novo Nordisk asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to stop manufacturers of combination drugs from producing copies of Wegovy and Ozempic, saying the drugs were too complex for manufacturers to produce safely.
U.S. regulations allow drug companies to copy brand-name drugs that are in short supply by combining, mixing or changing the ingredients to meet demand. Wegovy and Ozempic both contain semaglutide as their main ingredient, and the drugs are in short supply in the U.S.
Despite being listed as "available" on the FDA's website for all doses of Ozempic and Wegovy, the drugs are still on the agency's shortage list.
Novo Nordisk said at the time that this was the result of its investment in expanding production capacity and "ongoing communication" with the FDA.
"I don't want to speculate today whether we are completely off the shortage list, but this is a first step and we hope to be off in the future," Knudsen said on Wednesday.
He said this was important because if a product is not on the shortage list, manufacturers of copies are restricted.
Knudsen reiterated that Novo Nordisk "is highly focused on product safety" and that is why the company is looking at combination products in the market and related safety issues.