Over the past six months it has been hard to miss, but we might still be underestimating the scale of what we’re living through. And no, we’re not referring to artificial intelligence. We are living through a revolution in weight loss treatments that may change the way we look at obesity forever. If we continue down this path, being overweight may be a choice.
It started with the pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk that has spent the past 100 years working on diabetes treatments. They launched Ozempic which had seen patients lose an average of 15% of their body weight in 68 weeks in clinical trials. Ozempic was everywhere – Hollywood A-listers were swearing by it and Australia experienced a months long shortage of the drug. Novo Nordisk has followed up with a second drug, Wegovy, that is reported to work even more effectively.
Other pharmaceutical companies are looking to get into this space. Last week, Eli Lily published results for their experimental weight loss drug, retatrutide, that saw patients lose an average of 24% of their body weight after 48 weeks. These results give it the highest reduction of body weight seen in the obesity drug space so far.
The implications of these drugs are going to be profound. Huge cost savings for healthcare systems and improved quality of life for millions of people struggling with obesity. At the same time, they represent a dilemma. Offering a path to weight loss without any of the effort or care could have unintended consequences.
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