Ozempic.... Hmmm

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rustee2011

rustee2011

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
A mate of mine said she lost quite a bit of weight on this, and reversed her diabetes. Hmmm. Never heard of this drug before
 
It is mentioned a lot on the forum but at the moment it is not available to new patients due to the manufacturer not foreseeing a huge rise in demand, mostly due to certain celebs using it for weight loss.
Some existing NHS patients, who have been on it for a while, are also struggling to get it and now having to move to other drugs because their prescription for it can't be filled.
 
OK, I recall several years ago, one of her eyes started bleeding while she was at work. She had to take the day off. It took a few days to get the sight back in her eye. Recalling how bad she had it, I thought it was a type of last resort thing
 
Correction... It hasn't reversed it she told me
 
Eddy Edson said:
Nope.
Click to expand...
Just Jeremy Clarkson, then?
www.independent.co.uk

Jeremy Clarkson sparks debate after revealing he is taking ‘wonder drug’ Ozempic

British presenter revealed he has apologised to Duke and Duchess of Sussex over widely criticised column
www.independent.co.uk www.independent.co.uk
The Guardian seems to think it’s being used for private prescriptions for weight loss, adding to the shortage.
www.theguardian.com

Prescription of diabetes drug Ozempic for weight loss ‘contributing to UK shortage’

Experts and patients concerned over off-label prescribing of drug famous as celebrity slimming jab
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
 
My mates eyes are OK. She said it could be better
 
Robin said:
Just Jeremy Clarkson, then?
www.independent.co.uk

Jeremy Clarkson sparks debate after revealing he is taking ‘wonder drug’ Ozempic

British presenter revealed he has apologised to Duke and Duchess of Sussex over widely criticised column
www.independent.co.uk www.independent.co.uk
The Guardian seems to think it’s being used for private prescriptions for weight loss, adding to the shortage.
www.theguardian.com

Prescription of diabetes drug Ozempic for weight loss ‘contributing to UK shortage’

Experts and patients concerned over off-label prescribing of drug famous as celebrity slimming jab
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
Click to expand...
For health matters, the Guardian is the tabloid you read when you don't read tabloids. In other words, it sucks.

But for sure it's being used for weight loss. That's because it works really really well for many many people for whom nothing else works very well at all. Celebs are high profile but they are not driving the bulk of this.

And by "works well" I mean it helps people to take appropriate lifestyle steps which their brain/bod wiring really resists, without the meds.

It's not a fad. One little snippet: Walmart is planning for significantly reduced food sales in the US ...
 
Eddy Edson said:
But for sure it's being used for weight loss. That's because it works really really well for many many people for whom nothing else works very well at all. Celebs are high profile but they are not driving the bulk of this
Click to expand...
I think people have read about celebrities using it, either in newspapers, or on social media (which I can’t provide examples of, because I don’t use it) because that’s what gets it publicity. That’s what I was using my two example newspaper articles for, to demonstrate the way people got to know about it, which has led to people asking for a private prescription for it. It certainly wasn’t being advertised and prescribed by the NHS earlier in the year when the shortages started.
I'm assuming the off-label use took the manufacturer by surprise, and they couldn’t ramp up production quickly enough.

Oh, and the reason people quote from the Guardian so often on here is that it’s one of the few papers not behind a paywall.
 
Robin said:
I think people have read about celebrities using it, either in newspapers, or on social media (which I can’t provide examples of, because I don’t use it) because that’s what gets it publicity. That’s what I was using my two example newspaper articles for, to demonstrate the way people got to know about it, which has led to people asking for a private prescription for it. It certainly wasn’t being advertised and prescribed by the NHS earlier in the year when the shortages started.
I'm assuming the off-label use took the manufacturer by surprise, and they couldn’t ramp up production quickly enough.
Click to expand...
I think the demand has been driven by "word of mouth" or the SM equivalent, not so much by celeb endorsement, stemming from the US where it was being prescribed for weight loss well before that started to happen elsewhere & where availability has been better.

Manufacturing scale-up for these drugs is very expensive and time consuming. Novo and Eli Lilly have announced something like USD $9 billion IIRC in new manufacturing investment for Ozempic/Wegovy and Mounjaro.

But it's true that corporately they seem to have been taken by surprise by the demand, which fits with commentary that these drugs had a tough time getting corporate support, due to the disappointing history of weight loss meds.
 
Eddy Edson said:
For health matters, the Guardian is the tabloid you read when you don't read tabloids. In other words, it sucks.

But for sure it's being used for weight loss. That's because it works really really well for many many people for whom nothing else works very well at all. Celebs are high profile but they are not driving the bulk of this.

And by "works well" I mean it helps people to take appropriate lifestyle steps which their brain/bod wiring really resists, without the meds.

It's not a fad. One little snippet: Walmart is planning for significantly reduced food sales in the US ...
Click to expand...
Just while I'm thinking of it, this pic from a Kevin Hall et al study really sums things up for the pre-Ozempic etc world:


1696518510502.png
Lifetsyle interventions typically result in rapid short term weight loss which then disappears over 12-24 months. The "appetite" line in the second pic drives things, ramping up in response to weight loss, and staying high.

The bottom pic is the resulting "effort" on the part of patient - the difference between how much "appetite" wants them to eat and how much they are eating. At the end of 24 months the patient is only able to hold on to a few kg's weight loss from baseline by constantly struggling against what feels like a ~300 kcal intake deficit.

Obviously that's not true for everyone, in particular, the minority who got lucky with their wiring and don't have that kind of appetite response. Which means basically anybody who has successfully maintained substantial weight loss for several years. What these drugs do in effect is let other people have the same kind of appetite response as this fortunate minority.
 
in the news tonight saying causes Gastrointestinal problems . Bowel obstruction, pancreatitis etc. All meds cause something .
 
Nayshiftin said:
in the news tonight saying causes Gastrointestinal problems . Bowel obstruction, pancreatitis etc. All meds cause something .
Click to expand...
It’s all in the leaflet, unfortunately as you say causes issues like any medication can, they don’t seem to worry about giving it to anyone with gallstones history either which I find odd when that can lead to pancreatitis.
 
Sarahp said:
It’s all in the leaflet, unfortunately as you say causes issues like any medication can, they don’t seem to worry about giving it to anyone with gallstones history either which I find odd when that can lead to pancreatitis.
Click to expand...
It is not a quick fix I would be hoping for. It is worrying.
 
Is Ozempic licensed for weight loss now? I don’t think it was to begin with (and I thought it was Wegovy that NICE had recently aporoved).

Off label weight loss prescription is certainly identified as part of the reason for the current supply-issues on this page by DUK

“The NHS is currently facing supply issues with glucagon-like peptide receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs), a range of drugs used for managing blood glucose levels in people with type 2 diabetes.

The global shortage in supply is partly due to a surge in off label prescriptions of the drug semaglutide being issued for weight loss which is outstripping supply.”

www.diabetes.org.uk

Our response to serious supply issues of drugs for people with type 2 diabetes

The global shortage in supply is partly due to a surge in off-label prescriptions of the drug semaglutide being issued for weight loss, which is exceeding supply. Previously (since the summer of 2023) all stocks of GLP-1 RAs had to be reserved for those already using these medications, meaning...
www.diabetes.org.uk www.diabetes.org.uk
 
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