(Bloomberg) -- Patients, doctors and pharmacists across the US are struggling to get their hands on Eli Lilly & Co.’s powerful new obesity drug Zepbound, as demand for the weight-loss shot soars.

In San Diego, California Shannon Lucero called 8 pharmacies trying to fill her Zepbound prescription. When she called Express Scripts, her pharmacy benefit manager, she was told the dose she needed would be out of stock until at least April 7, sending her into “panic mode.” In Monroe, Michigan, Rachael Altenburg said she spent three days calling more than 10 pharmacies to find one that could fill her prescription. 

Angela Fitch, who helps run an obesity clinic in Boston, said the supply situation has been stressful for both patients and doctors. “Patients are mad at my staff, my staff are upset,” she said in an interview. One patient called five different pharmacies in Boston Monday before she finally found one that could fill her prescription. 

“It’s like The Hunger Games,” said Fitch, who is also the president of the Obesity Medicine Association. “Well, actually more like the anti-Hunger Games.”

Other GLP-1 drugs that cause weight-loss, such as Lilly’s Mounjaro and Novo Nordisk A/S’s Wegovy and Ozempic, have all gone in and out of supply in recent years, according to the US Food and Drug Administration, as companies are unable to meet rising demand. 

The agency doesn’t consider Zepbound to be in shortage, a spokesperson said. However, nine pharmacists and technicians in six states at CVS, Walgreens and Walmart told Bloomberg News that some or all of the doses of Zepbound were on backorder. Two CVS pharmacies in Ohio have been unable to fill prescriptions for Zepbound’s smallest dose for at least 10 days, two pharmacy technicians said. Amazon Pharmacy, which has a partnership with Lilly, is also listing multiple doses of Zepbound as currently unavailable. None of the pharmacy chains or Amazon responded to requests for comment. 

Only one of the pharmacies contacted by Bloomberg News, a Walmart in California, said it had no issues.

A Lilly spokesperson said that Zepbound is available for pharmacies to order from wholesalers, but did not respond to a question about whether there are any limits on those orders. Drug wholesalers Cardinal Health Inc., Cencora Inc. and McKesson Corp. did not provide comment.

The FDA uses reports from drugmakers to determine whether medications are in short supply. An FDA spokesperson said that based on information the agency has from Lilly, “there is currently adequate supply” of Zepbound.

Many patients, pharmacists and doctors are reporting otherwise. “At the moment, today, they don’t have anything in stock,” Richard Glotzer, a community pharmacist at Drug Mart of Millwood, in New York, said about a distribution center of one of his wholesalers, McKesson. Cardinal Health only had one dose level in stock, he said.

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Executives from Lilly have previously said they do not expect to be able to meet demand for Zepbound and Mounjaro this year. Just four months after its launch, new weekly prescriptions for the Lilly obesity drug surpassed those for Wegovy, a rival drug made by Novo, according to data from TD Cowen. 

Meanwhile, the drugmaker is scrambling to ramp up production, pouring billions into manufacturing. A Lilly executive said last month the company was undertaking the “most ambitious expansion agenda” in the company’s history. Novo is also working hard to keep up. In February, the Danish company agreed to buy three manufacturing plants for $11 billion.

Patients who can’t easily get the shot are finding solutions. Altenburg, in Michigan, eventually secured the drug on Amazon. Lucero, in San Diego, finally found a lower dose of the medication in stock. “I will have to make due,” she said. “It’s been a roller coaster.”

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