Canada’s federal health minister is now weighing in on the Ozempic situation that has seen thousands of doses of the diabetes and weight loss drug shipped from British Columbia to the United States.

Jean-Yves Duclos says he’s working with the provinces to prevent the mass exportation of essential medications to the U.S.

And he says legal ways to prevent medications being exported in mass quantities in the future will be explored through the Food and Drugs Act.

It was a topic of discussion with The Medical Record panel on Zoomer Radio’s Fight Back with guest host Marissa Lennox.

Dr. Alisa Naiman says drug shortages are not a new problem.

“Of course before the pandemic it was made worse everytime with tylenol, but also cough medications, everything is always in short supply,” Naiman explained, “And it’s been well known for a long time that people from the United States will buy their medications from Canada, and if we as a country have problems procuring medications for our own population, it will only become worse and worse.”

The level of abuse is described as outrageous by Health Minister Duclos after a Texas based doctor with a licence to practice in Nova Scotia wrote 17,000 prescriptions for Ozempic that were filled by two B.C. pharmacies then mailed to American residents.

That doctor has since been suspended by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Nova Scotia on an interim basis.