A Massapequa Park man is struggling to find a diabetes drug that is also used for weight loss.
Charlie Bartlett says he has reached out to large pharmacy chains, neighborhood pharmacies, doctors, even the manufacturer but can't locally find the refill he needs of Trulicity to manage his Type One diabetes.
"I can even get anybody to talk to me about it or give me alternatives about it, that's what's infuriating," Barlett said.
The demand for some diabetes drugs, like Ozempic and Trulicity has soared and led to a critical shortage, since some celebrities took to social media and touted using the drugs for weight loss.
Howard Jacobson, a pharmacist at Rockville Centre Pharmacy, says the supply issue for some diabetes drugs has been a problem for about a year.
"The people that are using it for diabetes aren't able to get it, that's the bottom line," Jacobson said. "We're not able to ever order it, we can only get allocated a certain amount of it."
Dr. Stuart Weinerman, an endocrinologist at Northwell Health, says anyone who is diabetic and can't get their regular medication needs to talk to their doctor about getting insulin or other pills.
"We always have various insulins available so if someone really can't get their hands on a once-a-week injection, that they can still consider insulin just to prevent their sugars from going up, there are many, many other pills available," Weinerman said.
Bartlett is now looking to Canada and dealing with the insurance to see if they will pay.
He tells News 12 if Canada can't help, he will likely have to wait until March for a refill.
One of the drugmakers says it has taken steps to increase production and in the meantime is asking health care providers to hold off on putting new patients on the medication.