How Many Doses Of Ozempic Are In The First Pen? What To Do With Extra Doses?

Answer

This is a great question and one I am happy to answer. There are three different Ozempic pens, each providing a different dosage of the drug, and it certainly can be confusing understanding how many doses you will get out of each. I break this down in the next section.

Ozempic Pens Come In Three Different Strengths

As mentioned, there are three different Ozempic pens:

• Ozempic 2mg/3mL (Delivers doses of 0.25mg and 0.5mg only)
• Ozempic 4mg/3mL (Delivers doses of 1mg only)
• Ozempic 8mg/mL (Delivers doses of 2mg only)

It is important to note that there was previously an Ozempic 2mg/1.5mL pen but this is in the process of being discontinued by the manufacturer, leaving the three strengths I've listed above.

How Many Doses Does Each Ozempic Pen Have?

The easiest way, in my opinion, to understand how many doses you will get out of an Ozempic pen is to think in terms of milligrams.

Your question specifically mentioned the 'first' Ozempic pen, so let's talk about that one.

The 'first' Ozempic pen contains a total of 2mg. How long it lasts depends on how your doctor prescribed it for you.

Generally, it is dosed as follows:

• 0.25mg once weekly for the first four (4) weeks, then 0.5mg weekly thereafter.

If you follow this dosage regimen, it will last for 6 doses, or 6 weeks (42 days). This is why this Ozempic pen comes with 6 needles.

If you are on a maintenance dose of 0.5mg weekly, it will last for 4 doses, or 4 weeks (28 days), since, again, the entire pen contains 2mg.

Similarly, for the other pens:

• The 1mg dose pen (Ozempic 4mg/3mL) will last for 4 doses or 4 weeks (28 days) when dosed at 1mg weekly
• The 2mg dose pen (Ozempic 8mg/3mL) will last for 4 doses or 4 weeks (28 days) when dosed at 2mg weekly

So, the only real variation here is with the 'first' Ozempic pen, since it can be dosed at either 0.25mg or 0.5mg.

However, the 0.25mg dose is considered non-therapeutic and is only for starting purposes. It's a low dose to allow your body to get used to the drug, before moving on (after a recommended 4 weeks) to a higher dose.

I've made a quick chart that describes what I just said above.

Extra Doses In The First Ozempic Pen?

A common question patients have regarding the Ozempic 2mg/3mL pen, the 'first' pen, the one that only delivers doses of 0.25mg and 0.5mg per dose, is what to do if you have extra doses after being moved on to the higher strengths.

It's understandable that individuals with 'extra' doses don't want to waste them. This is especially understandable for individuals who are buying this drug, which is very expensive, out of pocket (which many are when it's being used off-label for weight loss).

These 'extra doses' are a by-product of the recommended dosing schedule for Ozempic when you first start.

To reiterate, when first starting Ozempic, and you are following the initial titration schedule, you dose at 0.25mg once weekly for 4 weeks, then increase to 0.5mg for at least 4 weeks. This is documented specifically on the manufacturer's website, as shown below.

The problem is, many times, practitioners will then increase the dose further to 1mg after being on 0.5mg for 4 weeks, which would require a new Ozempic pen (the one that delivers 1mg per dose).

If we do some math here (0.25mg x 4 weeks = 1mg; then increasing to 0.5mg x 4 weeks = 2mg), you will be using a total of 3mg for your initial Ozempic titration if you follow the recommended schedule.

This would require two of the 'first' Ozempic pens (the 0.25mg/0.5mg pens), each of which contains 2mg of drug (4mg for both pens combined) and leave you with an extra 1mg un-utilized if you are then being increased to the 1mg per dose pen.

If you are now on the 1mg dose, and have that extra 1mg in your old pen, you could theoretically use that, but there is a problem here:

• The Ozempic 2mg/3mL pen (0.25mg; 0.5mg per dose) pen does not dial to 1mg. You would have to inject 0.5mg twice to get 1mg.

Although it isn't recommended that you do this, it isn't specifically discouraged either. In a clinical sense, there likely isn't anything wrong with injecting 0.5mg twice during one sitting to attain a 1mg dose, but you'd likely want to switch pen needles before delivering another dose to yourself and rotate administration sites.

If you are in a situation where you have some extra doses in your Ozempic pen, I highly recommend talking to your doctor about your options.

Final Words

Thanks so much for reaching out to us and I hope you found this answer helpful.