In 2012, Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk developed semaglutide, a medication to be taken once a week to help tackle type 2 diabetes. The injectable drug was trialed in 2016 and was approved by the FDA a year later, under the brand name Ozempic.
Unintended consequences
As is common in the process of developing and bringing new drugs to market, users quickly began reporting on Ozempic’s various side effects. Generally, these weren’t particularly pleasant — nausea being one of the most common. But there was one by-product that wasn’t completely unwelcome for some Ozempic patients — as many reported significant weight loss while taking the drug.
Fast forward to today, 2 years after Novo Nordisk’s re-trialed and rebranded version of semaglutide known as Wegovy was approved by the FDA specifically for the purpose of “chronic weight management”, and Ozempic has been called “Hollywood’s worst-kept secret”. Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel even referenced the weight loss injectable in the first two minutes of his opening monologue in March — but it’s not just paid-up members of the Hollywood glitterati that have turned to the drug in recent years.
Scaling up
Prescriptions for Ozempic, which is still technically only approved as a treatment for type 2 diabetes, have soared in recent years as word continues to spread about the drug and its reported pound-shifting properties. Indeed, at the start of 2018, US Ozempic prescriptions weren’t even breaking the 100 mark — by 2020, there were over 100,000 a week. That figure has risen even higher since, making it the most prescribed diabetes drug in America by some distance, with doctors increasingly prescribing Ozempic "off-label" — that is for a different purpose from what the medication is explicitly intended for.
And Ozempic isn't the only diabetes drug that's seen a surge in demand. Novo-produced Rybelsus has also soared, as has Mounjaro, which is one of the fastest-rising diabetes treatments, and being tipped by some doctors as the most powerful on the market in terms of weight loss credentials. Developers Eli Lilly are looking to get FDA approval of the drug for that purpose by the end of 2023.
