How does Ozempic work? Trick question. Even scientists can’t agree whether the miracle weight loss drug works its magic through the gut or the brain. Despite its seismic impact on reducing obesity rates (reversing what had been an upward curve in the United States for the first time since 2011) and boosting Danish GDP (manufacturer Novo Nordisk is now the most valuable company in Europe), the drug remains quite poorly understood. As do weight loss drugs more generally, presently used by one in eight Americans and, soon, many in the UK too.
Two weeks ago, the Health Secretary announced the UK government would be spending £300m on weight loss drug trials with the US company Eli Lilly, to assess whether such medication could help the overweight and unemployed return to work. A plan which, at the outset, assumes people are unemployed because they are overweight and fails to target the cause of the obesity crisis, which costs the NHS £6.5bn a year as well as £8.9bn a year in lost productivity.
