The supply of weight loss drug Wegovy is expected to improve in the next few months, the company said.

Popular weight loss drug maker Wegovy said Wednesday it is ramping up production of the drug, which is in short supply in pharmacies across the United States.

The drug faced massive shortages last year due to its growing popularity, executives at drug maker Novo Nordisk said in a phone call with investors on Wednesday.

“We know for a fact that the patients are lining up,” CEO Lars Jørgensen said by phone.

Novo Nordisk said on Dec. 28 that all doses of the drug would be available again following supply issues, but added that it could take time for the drug to reach pharmacies from distribution centers.

There is still “backlog” for Wegovy, Jorgensen said, but Novo Nordisk expects this to become less of an issue as more drug offerings emerge in the next few months.

“We are obviously encouraged by the trend line that we see, but we also believe that it will normalize,” he said.

Vegovi, or semaglutide, belongs to a class of drugs called GLP-1 agonists. They mimic a hormone that helps reduce food intake and reduce appetite. In clinical trials, Wegovy has been shown to reduce body weight by about 15%.

The drug is expensive, costing about $1,300 a month, and insurance companies often don’t cover it.

The shortage of Wegovy has forced some people in the US to stop taking it, leading them to gain some or all of their weight.

Others were prescribed Ozempic off-label for weight loss, which caused a shortage of this drug. Ozempic is the same medicine as Wegovy, only at a lower dose, and is approved for use in people with type 2 diabetes to manage blood sugar levels. Both are made by Novo Nordisk.

Doug Langa, head of Novo Nordisk’s North American division, said in a telephone conversation that patients were having difficulty finding a cure, but added that the company now “hopes” that the drug will become more widely available.

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