Ozempic is in the spotlight but it's just the latest in a long and strange history of weight-loss drugs
That’s been the holy grail of weight-loss ever since 19th century English undertaker and weight-loss celebrity William Banting’s 1863 Letter on Corpulence spruiked his “miraculous” method of slimming down.
- That’s been the holy grail of weight-loss ever since 19th century English undertaker and weight-loss celebrity William Banting’s 1863 Letter on Corpulence spruiked his “miraculous” method of slimming down.
- Since then, humans have tried many things – diet, exercise, psychotherapy, surgery – to lose weight.
- But time and again we return to the promise of a weight-loss drug, whether it’s a pill, injection, or tonic.
Ozempic is a recent arrival
- Ozempic and its sister drug Wegovy, both manufactured by Novo Nordisk, are the latest offerings in a long history of drug treatments for people who are overweight.
- This has helped drive a shortage of Ozempic for diabetes treatment.
From ‘gland treatment’ to amphetamines
- For example, organotherapy (gland treatment) was hugely popular in the 1920s to 1940s.
- Doctors prescribed overweight people extracts of animal glands – either eaten raw or dried in pill form or injected – to treat their supposedly “sluggish glands”.
- Amphetamines were first used as a nasal decongestant in the 1930s, but quickly found a market for weight-loss.
- Amphetamines too, fell from treatment use in the 1970s with Nixon’s “war on drugs” and recognition they were addictive.
Another decade, another drug
- For example, the popular diet drug of the 1980s and 90s was fen-phen, which contained appetite suppressants fenfluramine and phentermine.
- And as history recognises, multiple complexities can combine to push a drug into popularity or damn it to history’s rubbish bin.
- One noticeable contrast with past diet drug experiences is that now, many people are happy to talk about using Ozempic.
- It seems to be increasingly socially acceptable to use a drug to achieve weight-loss for primarily aesthetic reasons.
Our enduring search for weight-loss drugs
- Ozempic is predicted to earn Novo Nordisk US$12.5 billion this year alone, but it’s not just industry interests stoking this enduring desire for weight-loss drugs.
- Patients on an endless cycle of dieting and exercise want something more convenient, with a more certain outcome.
- It is no wonder demand for weight-loss drugs continues to soar.