Ozempic (Drug)

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    The New York Times Presents: ‘Weight of the World’ on Ozempic’s Rise

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    ‘Weight of the World’Producer/Director Esther Dere and Nicole RittenmeyerCo-Producer Leah VarjacquesProducer/Reporter Dani BlumProducer Rachel AbramsWatch our new documentary on FX and Hulu starting Friday, Nov. 22, at 10 p.m. Eastern.The ascent of GLP-1 medications, such as Ozempic, has brought about a transformation within the weight-loss industry and beyond, reshaping societal views on health and body image. Originally developed to manage diabetes, these drugs have become associated with rapid weight reduction, capturing public interest thanks to rumored endorsements from high-profile figures like Oprah Winfrey and Elon Musk.“Weight of the World” dives into this pivotal moment, following the journeys of three individuals as they navigate the complexities of using GLP-1 medications. The film examines their experiences against the backdrop of over 40 years of diet culture in America, prompting an inquiry into whether these medications represent a groundbreaking shift or merely another chapter in the long and complicated narrative of weight loss.Through expert commentary from medical professionals, dietitians and cultural critics, the film looks at this evolving landscape, and it investigates the societal obsession with thinness and the implications of these new pharmaceutical interventions, raising questions about body image, health and the ongoing struggle against obesity.Left Right Productions/The New York Times/Hulu Originals/FX Networks”GLP-1s are a blockbuster because they promise to solve a social problem without changing anything else.”Tressie McMillan Cottom, Times Opinion columnistLeft Right Productions/The New York Times/Hulu Originals/FX Networks“Thinking about weight is probably the No. 1 item that’s on my mind most of the time. Like, I’m always comparing myself to everyone around me.”Jeffrey Luxmore, a subject featured in the filmSupervising Producer Liz HodesDirector Of Photography Victor Tadashi SuarezVideo Editor Geoff O’Brien“The New York Times Presents” is a series of documentaries representing the unparalleled journalism and insight of The New York Times, bringing viewers close to the essential stories of our time. More

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      Jill Stein’s Third-Party Candidacy

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      More from our inbox:Harris’s AdsDrug-Free TreatmentsRegretting Email, and Other Modern MusingsJill Stein, the Green Party’s candidate for president, after a campaign event in Dearborn, Mich., earlier in October.Nic Antaya for The New York TimesTo the Editor:Re “She’s Still Running for President, No Matter Who Asks Her to Stop” (front page, Oct. 20):I just came back from the grocery store in Philadelphia, where I live. On the street corner opposite the store was a sign that said something like “Demand more from Harris or I am voting for Jill Stein.” At the bottom it said the sign was from the progressive cause.Make no mistake: Anyone who votes for Ms. Stein because they think Kamala Harris isn’t progressive enough is really voting for Donald Trump. This is Pennsylvania, for heaven’s sake, which many believe is the most critical swing state. And where the race is thought to be very, very close.If progressives are really committed to their cause, they can’t vote for Ms. Stein in Pennsylvania. Massachusetts maybe — where it doesn’t matter. But not here. (Progressives can’t really think they will get closer to their policy goals with Donald Trump!)We can’t afford another Florida 2000, when the votes for Ralph Nader may have cost Al Gore the election. The stakes are too high.Stephen M. DavidsonPhiladelphiaTo the Editor:The platform of the Green Party includes as one of its “four pillars”: “Ecology: The human cost of climate change is too high. We need to get off fossil fuels and on to renewable energy.”The candidacy of Jill Stein, the Green Party nominee, could hand Donald Trump the presidency. Mr. Trump, in his stint in the White House tweeted, “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Compounded Semaglutide: What to Know About Overdose Risks of Ozempic Alternative

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      Some patients say it’s easy to get the do-it-yourself doses of compounded semaglutide wrong.Three hours after Becky Cheairs injected herself with the first dose of compounded semaglutide, she started to vomit. Crouched over the toilet, reeling from nausea, she thought there was no way she would make it on the R.V. trip from Arkansas to San Antonio she had planned that weekend.She was right: She spent the next day throwing up at least once an hour.Like many others, Ms. Cheairs, 66, had taken the drug to lose weight. But she hadn’t taken the brand-name products Ozempic or Wegovy, which come in pens pre-filled with a specific dose. Instead, the medication she was prescribed through a telehealth service came with a vial and a bag of syringes to draw the drug out herself.Ms. Cheairs’ husband asked how much she had taken, then read the instructions. He was shocked: Ms. Cheairs had accidentally given herself five times the amount she was supposed to take.Accidents like this are becoming more common. There have been 159 calls to national poison control centers so far this year involving compounded GLP-1s, the class of medications that includes semaglutide. In 2023, there were only 32.The vast majority of these calls are from people who took too much medication, said Kait Brown, the clinical managing director at America’s Poison Centers. The problem has become so concerning that the Food and Drug Administration issued a warning last month about people overdosing on compounded semaglutide. Some patients have been hospitalized, developed pancreatitis or gallstones, or have fainted or become dehydrated. Some patients had taken 10 or even 20 times more than the intended dose.The demand for Ozempic and similar drugs has pushed compounded medications, once a somewhat niche corner of health care, into the mainstream. There isn’t solid data on how many people take compounded GLP-1s. But some estimates have suggested millions of Americans may be seeking them out, often, because they are looking for a cheaper option or can’t find the brand-name drug in stock.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Fake Ozempic Is Putting Patients at Risk. Here’s How to Spot It.

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      Fake versions of popular drugs used for weight loss are putting people at risk.Experts have grown increasingly concerned about fake versions of Ozempic and popular weight loss drugs. These copycats can look deceptively real, and may contain dangerous substances or entirely different drugs altogether.In June, the World Health Organization warned that fake batches of Ozempic were found in the United States, the United Kingdom and Brazil. Also in June, Eli Lilly issued a letter expressing concern that counterfeit versions of its own drugs, Mounjaro and Zepbound, were being sold online, through social media and at medical spas. Those who study the counterfeit drug market say these findings are alarming, but not all that surprising. The drugs are expensive, often hard to find and highly sought-after.“Such high demand and short supply and such a desperate population — that’s a recipe for disaster,” said George Karavetsos, a former director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigations.As a result, a counterfeit market has emerged, with phony drugs sold online at low prices without a prescription or any contact with a doctor. Some websites have storefronts to sell what they claim is semaglutide, the substance in Ozempic, which customers can add straight into an online shopping cart. The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy said it had identified thousands of websites illegally selling drugs like Ozempic, including fake versions. Patients often have no way to verify what’s in these products.Shabbir Imber Safdar, the executive director of the Partnership for Safe Medicines, said he worried about both the rise of fake drugs and also the popularity of compounded semaglutide and tirzepatide, the substance in Mounjaro. These customized versions of drugs are made at compounding pharmacies and under best practices, contain ingredients that come from facilities registered with the F.D.A. But regulators have warned about adverse events linked to compounded semaglutide, and stressed that compounded medications are subject to less oversight than traditionally approved medications.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Some States Say They Can’t Afford Ozempic and Other Weight Loss Drugs

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      Public employees in West Virginia who took the drugs lost weight and were healthier, and some are despondent that the state is canceling a program to help pay for them.Joanna Bailey, a family physician and obesity specialist, doesn’t want to tell her patients that they can’t take Wegovy, but she has gotten used to it.Around a quarter of the people she sees in her small clinic in Wyoming County would benefit from the weight-loss medications known as GLP-1s, which also include Ozempic, Zepbound and Mounjaro, she says. The drugs have helped some of them lose 15 to 20 percent of their weight. But most people in the area she serves don’t have insurance that covers the cost, and virtually no one can afford sticker prices of $1,000 to $1,400 a month.“Even my richest patients can’t afford it,” Dr. Bailey said. She then mentioned something that many doctors in West Virginia — among the poorest states in the country, with the highest prevalence of obesity, at 41 percent — say: “We’ve separated between the haves and the have-nots.”Such disparities sharpened in March when West Virginia’s Public Employees Insurance Agency, which pays most of the cost of prescription drugs for more than 75,000 teachers, municipal workers and other public employees and their families, canceled a pilot program to cover weight-loss drugs.Some private insurers help pay for medications to treat obesity, but most Medicaid programs do so only to manage diabetes, and Medicare covers Wegovy and Zepbound only when they are prescribed for heart problems.Over the past year, states have been trying, amid rising demand, to determine how far to extend coverage for public employees. Connecticut is on track to spend more than $35 million this year through a limited weight-loss coverage initiative. In January, North Carolina announced that it would stop paying for weight-loss medications after forking out $100 million for them in 2023 — 10 percent of its spending on prescription drugs.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      How Ozempic Is Changing Diabetes Treatment

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      Millions of patients rely on insulin. But with new drugs, some have been able to lower their doses or stop taking it altogether.For over 20 years, Betsy Chadwell carried her insulin pens everywhere. Day in and day out, she carefully calibrated the doses needed to keep her Type 2 diabetes in check. “Every meal, and every morning and every night — it controls your life,” she said.In late 2021, she started on the diabetes drug Ozempic. Within months, she was able to stop taking the short-acting insulin she typically took before each meal altogether, and she has substantially reduced the dose of long-acting insulin she uses daily. Scaling back on insulin has given her a sense of freedom, she said. She still uses a continuous glucose monitor to track her blood sugar, meticulously watching for slumps and spikes — but even as she took less insulin, she said, Ozempic has helped keep her glucose levels more under control.Millions of Americans rely on some form of insulin, a lifesaving drug that has long been a mainstay of diabetes treatment. But it can also be a burden to patients like Ms. Chadwell, who must juggle different formulations and doses, and often must have insulin on hand at all times. “I really feel for those patients, because you can never stop having it in the back of your mind,” said Dr. Scott Hagan, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Washington who studies obesity. But in recent years, Ozempic and a similar drug, Mounjaro — both weekly shots that can lower blood sugar, in part by mimicking a hormone that stimulates insulin production — have offered patients an enticing new option to try managing their Type 2 diabetes without relying as heavily on insulin.And drugmakers are examining other ways these drugs might work alongside insulin: Novo Nordisk, the company that makes Ozempic, is studying a new drug called IcoSema, a weekly shot that combines insulin icodec (an ultra long-acting version of insulin) and semaglutide, the compound in Ozempic.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Ozempic and Wegovy Have Health Benefits Beyond Weight Loss

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      Last year was called the year of Ozempic, though it was also a year of Ozempic backlash and Ozempic shortages, which could persist for years. Even so, we appear very far from a peak for GLP-1 drugs, like Ozempic and Wegovy, which are powered by a molecule called semaglutide, and Mounjaro, which uses its cousin tirzepatide. It seems possible to imagine a future in which almost everyone is taking some variety of GLP-1 drug, and with a pretty good reason to do so.Probably, you have heard about the game-changing impact of such drugs on obesity, a condition that affects 40 percent of Americans and increases the risk of heart disease, stroke and hundreds of other comorbidities. Patients on Ozempic and Wegovy can lose 15 to 20 percent or more of their weight in a little over a year, and if they stay on the drugs, the weight tends to stay off. That may not sound like a monumental effect, but consider that on average, an obese 210-pound man who loses 20 percent of his body mass generally passes quickly through the overweight stage all the way to a normal weight.If anything, though, we’ve probably talked too much about cosmetic weight loss and Hollywood vanity — and certainly made too many comparisons to fen-phen, Botox and Viagra. The GLP-1 drugs have been shown to cut risk of heart attacks, strokes and death from coronary disease by 20 percent among overweight and obese patients, presumably through the salubrious effect of weight loss, though the researchers can’t yet say for sure. Semaglutide has been shown to eliminate or reduce the need for insulin among those with recent-onset Type 1 diabetes. In a clinical trial of people with Type 2 diabetes and moderate to severe kidney disease, the drug reduced the risk of kidney disease progression and cut the death rate from cardiovascular and kidney-related causes by 24 percent — such a clear result that the trial was ended early. Semaglutide has reduced fatty liver deposits in patients with H.I.V. and nonalcoholic steatotic liver disease. It has normalized the menstrual cycles of those with polycystic ovary syndrome. (It has also, somewhat mysteriously, seemed to produce a wave of unintended pregnancies among women taking birth control, at least if TikTok videos are to be trusted.)Studies have shown promise in treating Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s with GLP-1 drugs, perhaps by regulating insulin levels and reducing inflammation, and the drugs may yet prove useful in treating many other conditions made worse by chronic inflammation. Some studies have found large decreases in the risk of depression and anxiety; others found smaller but still positive effects. There are potential applications for schizophrenia and neurological dysfunction, thanks to the role that insulinlike hormones like GLP-1 play in the development of the central nervous system and the way semaglutide reshapes the brain’s chemical reward system. It seems to bend the curve on alcoholism and drug addiction and curb other addictive behaviors, as well — compulsive shopping and sex addiction, gambling and nail biting, smoking and skin picking. A compulsive nation has stumbled into what looks like a treatment for compulsion and one that happens to protect against some of the country’s biggest killers and curb some of its most pervasive pathologies and inner demons.Americans love to dream of miracle drugs, but hardly anything ever seems to fill the bill. True, semaglutide has arrived with real questions trailing like bunting: Much of the weight loss is from lean muscle mass, which isn’t ideal, and there are reasons to worry over the possibility of thyroid problems, loss of bone density and sarcopenia, a weakness disorder associated with aging. There are potentially other serious long-term side effects, though millions of Americans have been taking Ozempic for Type 2 diabetes for years without serious issues. (Some of them do report more familiar side effects, like nausea.) The GLP-1 drugs aren’t a permanent fix in a single shot — whether the thing being addressed is body mass index or cardiac risk or the progression of Alzheimer’s — but a permanent disease-management program. They also haven’t exactly cured cancer, although more than a dozen cancers are linked to obesity, and in at least one case, colorectal cancer, there is reason to believe GLP-1 drugs may directly cut the chances of developing the disease.All that means that semaglutide isn’t exactly a cure-all, in the vernacular sense. But it seems to be about as close as we’ve gotten, even in a time of racing biomedical progress, to that old science-fiction proposition — one pill for almost everything and almost everyone forever.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Are You Starting Ozempic or Another GLP-1? We Want to Hear From You.

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      The New York Times is looking to speak with people who are about to start GLP-1 medications such as Ozempic and are open to allowing us to chronicle their experiences.Have you tried numerous avenues to help your chronic illness, obesity or mental health and turned to Ozempic, Wegovy or another GLP-1 drug to address these issues? The New York Times wants to chronicle the journeys of people who are about to start taking one of these medications or who are losing access to them. We’re especially interested in hearing from groups of people, such as friends or families, that are taking these drugs as a group.We will keep all responses confidential and will reach out to respondents whose stories we’d like to learn more about. We will only use your contact information to follow up with you and will not share it outside the Times newsroom. More

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      Israel’s Destructive Bombs, and DeSantis’s Costly Ground Game

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      The New York Times Audio app is home to journalism and storytelling, and provides news, depth and serendipity. If you haven’t already, download it here — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter.The Headlines brings you the biggest stories of the day from the Times journalists who are covering them, all in about five minutes.A Times visual investigation reveals that one of Israel’s largest bombs was regularly used in areas designated safe for civilians.The New York Times, Source: Planet LabsOn Today’s Episode:A Times Investigation Tracked Israel’s Use of One of Its Most Destructive Bombs in South Gaza, by Robin Stein, Haley Willis, Ishaan Jhaveri, Danielle Miller, Aaron Byrd and Natalie ReneauAt Least 15 Dead in Czech Republic After Shooting at Prague University, by Andrew Higgins, Jenny Gross and Aric TolerHow DeSantis’s Ambitious, Costly Ground Game Has Sputtered, by Rebecca Davis O’Brien, Nicholas Nehamas and Kellen BrowningCan Ozempic and Weight-Loss Drugs Treat Other Diseases?, by Dani BlumMiniature Livestock Are a Hot-Ticket Item This Holiday Season, by Madison Malone KircherJessica Metzger and More