(NPR) – What if your entire economy was based on one product? TV commercials joke that America runs on Dunkin’, but for all intents and purposes, Denmark quite literally runs on Ozempic, a diabetes medication that is now widely used by consumers to lose weight.

Ozempic is proving to be a powerful growth engine. Its worldwide sales have increased by over 60% in the past year alone. In the United States, which is one of its largest markets, prescriptions for Ozempic and similar drugs quadrupled between 2020 and 2022. And even with those blockbuster sales, demand is so high that there has been a persistent shortage of Ozempic in the U.S. for a large part of the past few years. (Read More)