Novo Nordisk on Tuesday asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to ban compounding pharmacies from making copycat versions of its popular weight-loss and diabetes drugs, which it said were too complex for those manufacturers to produce safely.

Novo Nordisk wants the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to prevent compounding pharmacies from manufacturing their own versions of the company’s popular weight loss drug Wegovy and diabetes treatment Ozempic,

The Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk contends that semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy, is too complex for those manufacturers to make safely.

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Ozempic maker Novo Nordisk (NVO) is asking the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to prohibit compounding pharmacies from making off-brand versions of semaglutide, the active ingredient in its blockbuster weight loss and diabetes medications.

Novo Nordisk has nominated semaglutide for inclusion in the FDA’s Demonstrable Difficulties for Compounding list, which includes drugs that are too complicated to produce and could pose substantial safety risks to patients if manufactured incorrectly.

The agency posted documents this week that the drugmaker had requested the drug be placed on the FDA's "Demonstrable Difficulties for Compounding Lists."

Novo Nordisk has asked the FDA to block production of compounded copies of Ozempic, arguing that it’s too difficult to do safely. It’s the latest escalation in a brewing war between pharmaceutical companies and compounders.