An Open Door for Generic Semaglutide in Canada?

“Oops.” It seems that Novo Nordisk has left a door wide open for generic semaglutide to enter the market in Canada next year. This news spilled out of an interview with the CEO of a generic pharmaceuticals company, Richard Saynor of Sandoz. He told Endpoints News that his company had filed for a generic semaglutide in Canada to launch next year.

It appears that a patent in Canada that would have protected semaglutide from generic competition is expiring early in Canada. Why? Because Novo Nordisk did not pay a $250 patent maintenance fee.

A Cryptic Response from Novo

Fortune asked Novo Nordisk about this apparent mistake. Suggesting they had made no mistake, the company said:

“All intellectual property decisions are carefully considered at a global level. Periods of exclusivity for pharmaceutical products end as part of their normal life cycle, and generic treatments may become available over time.”

Implications? We Shall See

Where patents for prescription pharmaceuticals are concerned, nothing is simple. For a multi-billion-dollar asset like Ozempic, we find it hard to believe Novo Nordisk left the door open to generic competition in Canada through a mistake or miscalculation. Very often, such an asset is protected by a patent thicket. For the biggest prescription pharmaceutical product in Canada, why would this not be the case?

But there should be no doubt that Sandoz plans to introduce a generic in Canada next year. The patent also expires in China then. For the U.S., though patent protection lasts until 2032, we cannot ignore the factor of a cross-border trade in such products. FDA has even opened up the possibility for doing this at scale to lower drug costs. Florida gained approval for this last year.

We confess to a degree of uncertainty about what all of this will mean. Except to say that downward pressure on obesity drug prices will continue and perhaps become stronger.

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Mt Lebanon Doorway, photograph by Ted Kyle / ConscienHealth

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June 18, 2025