Speaker 1: Welcome back to our special summer series. I hope you're
Speaker 1: having an amazing break and taking some time out to
Speaker 1: rest and recover from a huge year. This week, we
Speaker 1: wanted to bring you some of our favorite episodes from
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five, the ones we loved putting together for you,
Speaker 1: or the ones you told us meant something to you.
Speaker 1: We are kicking things off with part one of our
Speaker 1: three part series investigating ozen Pic. This episode contains distressing themes,
Speaker 1: including suicide and disordered eating. For twenty four to seven support,
Speaker 1: please contact Lifeline on thirteen eleven fourteen. You'll find some
Speaker 1: links to more resources in today's episode description.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the eighty second Golden Gloves, Ozempich's Biggest night.
Speaker 1: We think of this o Zembic takeover in Hollywood. Excuse me,
Speaker 1: Jennie's No, it's Azempic. From viral weight loss drug to
Speaker 1: Hollywood punchline. What percent shouldn't be the only one? Ones
Speaker 1: whose body fat is one possess?
Speaker 3: When I look around this throom, I can't help but
Speaker 3: wonder is Ozembic right for me?
Speaker 1: Before Ozepic took social media by storm, it was touted
Speaker 1: as the miracle drug that could end type two diabetes.
Speaker 1: Medications are changing the way that we think about diabetes
Speaker 1: and weight management, but also cardiovascular risk management. Once lauded
Speaker 1: as the silver bullet to the stars, ozempic and other
Speaker 1: similar medications have slowly but surely crossed into the mainstream,
Speaker 1: bringing with them new conversations about body image, ethics, health
Speaker 1: and accessibility.
Speaker 4: There is so much demand, you know, there is demand
Speaker 4: for this that outstrips anything we've ever seen.
Speaker 1: But what does the exploding global popularity of azempic mean
Speaker 1: for young people?
Speaker 3: The entire body neutrality movement has almost had this regression
Speaker 3: where it's like, I don't know, we're actually back to
Speaker 3: those sizes that we're trying to get away from, and
Speaker 3: here's a drug that's going to fix everything.
Speaker 1: Over the next three episodes, we'll explore the new world
Speaker 1: of weight loss medication, its long term implications, the medical
Speaker 1: and social ramifications of its growing popularity, and how it's
Speaker 1: being prescribed and used in Australia today.
Speaker 5: Medicine and marketing should not be disconnected.
Speaker 6: In this way, we'll.
Speaker 1: Speak to experts, advocates, and the people whose lives have
Speaker 1: been changed by ozepic, for better or for worse. From
Speaker 1: the Daily Os. I'm Emma Gillespie and this is investigating
Speaker 1: Ozenpic part one. Ozepic was first approved by health authorities
Speaker 1: in the US in twenty seventeen as a medication to
Speaker 1: treat type two diabetes, approved for use in Australia the
Speaker 1: following year. The drug now generates billions of dollars annually
Speaker 1: for its manufacturer, Novo Nordisk, which has become one of
Speaker 1: the world's richest pharmaceutical companies. But what is ozeenpic and
Speaker 1: how does it actually work?
Speaker 4: So, Azempic's a drug name, and it's a drug name
Speaker 4: for what is otherwise known as semaglue tide. Semi glue
Speaker 4: tide falls into this family of drugs called glp ones.
Speaker 1: That's doctor Michael Bonning. He is the Australian Medical Association
Speaker 1: Chair of Public Health and a Sydney GP.
Speaker 4: Ozempic is the one that has been talked about so
Speaker 4: much in the media, but actually there are two others
Speaker 4: that get a lot of coverage as well. One is
Speaker 4: called Weigovi, which is just a higher dose version of ozempic,
Speaker 4: and another one that is called Munjaro. They act on
Speaker 4: hormones in our body and generally they were developed for
Speaker 4: diabetes patients. What they did for them was making sure
Speaker 4: that the cells work better with insulin, but also then
Speaker 4: that gastric emptying is slowed down so you feel fuller faster.
Speaker 4: You ended up with people losing significant amounts of weight,
Speaker 4: which for many people with diabetes is also a significant
Speaker 4: benefit to improving their diabetic control. But for those who
Speaker 4: don't have diabetes, that side effect has meant that these
Speaker 4: drugs have become increasingly popular for an indication that they
Speaker 4: weren't originally put on the market for.
Speaker 7: With those Zeenpig's popularity for dramatic weight loss, it's been
Speaker 7: hard to get, but a new similar drug has the
Speaker 7: same active ingredient as ozepig.
Speaker 2: WHEREGOV helped people lose on average fifteen percent of their
Speaker 2: body weight. That's compared with the nearly twenty three percent
Speaker 2: achieved by Manjaro. The battle of the weight loss drugs continues.
Speaker 1: Taken as an injection usually once a week, doctor Bonning
Speaker 1: says ozeenpic and other GLP one medications start working almost immediately,
Speaker 1: within a few hours. For twenty six year old Grace,
Speaker 1: the overall experience of weight loss medication gave her a
Speaker 1: confidence that she had never felt before. Grace wrote to
Speaker 1: us from Brisbane to tell us about her experience. Here's
Speaker 1: a bit of her story, voiced by someone else.
Speaker 4: My entire life.
Speaker 7: I have been slightly overweight since becoming an adult, working
Speaker 7: an office job, no longer doing sports, the weight started
Speaker 7: to climb slightly. It wasn't until I moved away from
Speaker 7: home and experienced a really rough time that I ended
Speaker 7: up putting on significant weight in a short period. This
Speaker 7: was the start of a number of health problems for me.
Speaker 7: I had kidney stones, I had gallstones. I was generally
Speaker 7: unhappy and lacking a lot of self love.
Speaker 1: Grace has used both Ozenpic and Munjaro at different times
Speaker 1: since June twenty twenty three.
Speaker 7: Munjaro was significantly more expensive, but it gave me almost
Speaker 7: no side effects. Because of that, I was able to
Speaker 7: consistently stay on the medication for about six months.
Speaker 1: She lost over seventeen kilos during that time, and since then,
Speaker 1: Grace says her life has changed. Her confidence has transformed.
Speaker 1: Pain she used to feel daily has disappeared.
Speaker 7: I'm not embarrassed to walk up the stairs with someone.
Speaker 7: I feel confident that I could physically get myself out
Speaker 7: of danger if I had to. The mobility is insane.
Speaker 7: The change of perspective is enormous.
Speaker 1: Grace said she feels in control of her food choices
Speaker 1: for the first time in her life. She details experiencing
Speaker 1: a shift in how she thinks about food, what Grace
Speaker 1: describes as previous compulsions and food noise all day, every day.
Speaker 1: She told us, it's a difficult thing to explain to
Speaker 1: someone who's never experienced issues with food noise, but Grace
Speaker 1: likens it to listening to a loud song on repeat
Speaker 1: and you've got no ability to change the song, or
Speaker 1: turn down the volume or take a break. For her,
Speaker 1: both glp won medications, Ozebic and Munjaro were like finally
Speaker 1: someone had given her a remote to listen to something else.
Speaker 7: It was so healing to know that I wasn't just
Speaker 7: worse than skinny people, or I wasn't just weak. My
Speaker 7: brain wasn't working against me anymore.
Speaker 1: Grace's story is just one of the hundreds of positive
Speaker 1: anecdotes we received when we asked our audience about their
Speaker 1: experiences using Ozepic and similar medications. Dozens of TDA followers
Speaker 1: told us that these drugs have changed their life that
Speaker 1: they've never been happier or healthier. Some of you told
Speaker 1: us it's saved your life. We could go on for
Speaker 1: hours talking through all the many glowing reviews we received
Speaker 1: about ozepic, Munjaro, and wegovi. But while so many of
Speaker 1: you did have a positive experience with these medications, hundreds
Speaker 1: of you also told us the exact opposite. Several TDA
Speaker 1: followers told us they've ended up in hospital after taking ozenpic,
Speaker 1: with gallbladder removal being the most commonly reported issue.
Speaker 4: As with most drugs, most side effects are dose dependent.
Speaker 4: They often are worse at higher doses.
Speaker 1: We'll be back with more of today's episode right after this. Ultimately,
Speaker 1: GLP one medications like ozepic are still relatively new, and
Speaker 1: that means the full list of side effects associated with
Speaker 1: their long term use remains somewhat unknown. GPS and healthcare
Speaker 1: providers can report adverse side effects relating to these medications
Speaker 1: to the federal government's Department of Health. These reports are
Speaker 1: tracked on the Therapeutic Goods Administration's Database of Adverse Event Notifications.
Speaker 1: The online tracker includes negative symptoms associated with the use
Speaker 1: of any medication but you can filter down by type.
Speaker 1: So that's what we did to look at ozenpic. We
Speaker 1: go v and compounded products or pharmacy made versions of
Speaker 1: these drugs, as well as semaglue tide products where the
Speaker 1: brand name was not specified. Remembering that semigluetides a type
Speaker 1: of GLP one. Golp ones are these weight loss medications
Speaker 1: that we are talking about. On the database, gastro Intestinal disorders,
Speaker 1: including pancreatitis made up around half of the adverse events
Speaker 1: reported between January twenty twenty three and January twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: But there's another particularly sinister side effect associated with ozepic
Speaker 1: use that's becoming increasingly prominent. I, for no reason whatsoever,
Speaker 1: and I hadn't felt like this for a very long time,
Speaker 1: became suicidal, unable to work.
Speaker 6: It was really quite unexplained.
Speaker 1: Mackenzie is a twenty six year old woman who sought
Speaker 1: out a zenpic for weight management.
Speaker 6: I've tried diet exercise and haven't been able to get
Speaker 6: that to work for the long term.
Speaker 1: But taking ozempic would lead her down one of the
Speaker 1: most frightening periods of her life.
Speaker 6: I was really really concerned, and I chatted with my
Speaker 6: partner about it, and he was like, well, the only
Speaker 6: thing that has changed in your life is you going
Speaker 6: on this particular medication.
Speaker 1: Suicidal ideation makes up one in every twenty adverse GLP
Speaker 1: one reactions reported to the TGA database. Since January twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three, there have been three reports of attempted suicide
Speaker 1: and separately, two deaths by suicide associated with the use
Speaker 1: of these medications. Ozenpic was the only product suspected to
Speaker 1: be related to both of those deaths. The TGA website
Speaker 1: stresses that the reports included in the database doesn't mean
Speaker 1: the details of the event have been confirmed or that
Speaker 1: the event has been determined to be related to that
Speaker 1: specific medication that it's listed alongside. The TGA says it
Speaker 1: uses adverse event reports to quote identify when a safety
Speaker 1: issue may be present, but it says assessing the safety
Speaker 1: of a medication cannot be made using the tracker alone.
Speaker 6: Saw Juniper advertised and decided to go through the questionnaire
Speaker 6: that they've got online, put in all accurate information and
Speaker 6: it gave me a prescription for Ozenpic.
Speaker 1: Juniper is one of a growing number of online platforms
Speaker 1: that privately prescribed weight loss medications without requiring face to
Speaker 1: face consults. It's a virtual or telehealth service, and while
Speaker 1: individual practitioners must comply with compulsory standards, there is no
Speaker 1: current mandatory safety and quality standards framework for these platforms.
Speaker 1: Mackenzie disclosed to Juniper that she'd been taking antidepressants since
Speaker 1: her early teens before she received a prescription for ozeenpic.
Speaker 6: So I started receiving that in the mail and injecting
Speaker 6: that as per kind of the recommended guidelines, I kind
Speaker 6: of had peace of mind that it would cover everything
Speaker 6: that was in my medical history.
Speaker 1: Mackenzie started on what she said was quite a low
Speaker 1: dose of ozmpic, but a month later she ramped up
Speaker 1: to a higher dose, and that's when she says things
Speaker 1: started feeling off, essentially out of nowhere. She describes experiencing
Speaker 1: suicidal ideations. Mackenzie shared her concerns with her regular GP,
Speaker 1: but that GP is not the person who prescribed her
Speaker 1: this medication. She got the drugs through Juniper.
Speaker 6: He said that he'd seen this in a number of patients.
Speaker 6: He explained to me how it kind of worked, and
Speaker 6: one of the things is that it slows the digestive system,
Speaker 6: which then can have negative effects on absorption.
Speaker 1: The medication Mackenzie was taking had stopped her body from
Speaker 1: absorbing the antidepressants that she'd been used to taking for
Speaker 1: more than a decade.
Speaker 6: I was in such a bad place that he suggested
Speaker 6: I go to hospital, stopped taking it, and contact Juniper
Speaker 6: to let them know that I was no longer taking
Speaker 6: it and explain what the side effects of that had
Speaker 6: been for me.
Speaker 1: Mackenzie followed the advice of her regular GP and stopped
Speaker 1: taking Ozeenbic immediately, but due to the slow release nature
Speaker 1: of the drug, it took over a month for her
Speaker 1: to start feeling like herself again. The twenty six year
Speaker 1: old said she was surrounded by the right people and
Speaker 1: the right support to get herself back to feeling safe
Speaker 1: and happy. She considers herself one of the lucky ones,
Speaker 1: but Mackenzie holds broader concerns about what these prescribing practices
Speaker 1: could mean that at risk young people.
Speaker 6: The fact that this is so freely available without even
Speaker 6: so much as a zoom call or a face to
Speaker 6: face check in is really really concerning to me, and
Speaker 6: I think something needs to be done regarding the access
Speaker 6: people have to this medication. I'm not saying that we
Speaker 6: should never use it and that it should be totally
Speaker 6: out of the question, but I think some kind of
Speaker 6: regulation needs to be put in place.
Speaker 1: So how are these medications regulated and how many people
Speaker 1: are taking them in Australia. The short answer to the
Speaker 1: second part of that question is really, we have no idea,
Speaker 1: and that's because of the way that these drugs are
Speaker 1: classified by health regulators and something called the Pharmaceutical Benefit
Speaker 1: Scheme the PBS.
Speaker 4: O Zembic is funded by the Australian government, so on
Speaker 4: the PBS for those people who meet certain parameters around
Speaker 4: their type two diabetes, so those people need to be
Speaker 4: the ones who are prioritized to get access to it.
Speaker 1: Let's break that down. Ozepic is a PBS listed drug
Speaker 1: for type two diabetes treatment, so because of that, it'll
Speaker 1: cost a diabetic around forty dollars a month to access.
Speaker 1: That doesn't mean it's illegal to use ozepic for other reasons,
Speaker 1: but it does mean prescriptions issued for a purpose other
Speaker 1: than diabetes, what's called off label uses, aren't subsidized by
Speaker 1: the PBS and therefore aren't tracked by it either. These
Speaker 1: private scripts also cost patients upwards of four hundred dollars
Speaker 1: a month.
Speaker 4: The other two medications are not on the PBS for
Speaker 4: that indication.
Speaker 1: Doctor Michael Bonning is talking about Munjaro and wegovy, but
Speaker 1: we Govy could soon become cheaper for some people who
Speaker 1: take it after the TGA recently approved this drug as
Speaker 1: a treatment for heart disease in overweight patients. This means
Speaker 1: the medicine regulator has determined there is SATIS factory evidence
Speaker 1: that we go v is an effective complementary therapy for
Speaker 1: adults with both cardiovascular disease and high body mass index
Speaker 1: to reduce the related risk of heart attack, stroke or death.
Speaker 1: We can find out how many people take ozenpic for
Speaker 1: type two diabetes treatment, and we might soon be able
Speaker 1: to find out how many people take we go vias
Speaker 1: a treatment for heart disease. But for everything else, it's
Speaker 1: virtually impossible to determine the scale of the use of
Speaker 1: these medications. Doctor Emma Beckett, a food and nutrition scientist
Speaker 1: and an adjunct senior lecturer at UNSW, says this is
Speaker 1: an issue that needs to shift urgently.
Speaker 5: My suspicion is the vast number of people accessing these
Speaker 5: medications in Australia are accessing them through telehealth and not
Speaker 5: through their standard GP. And for me, the question is
Speaker 5: why are they going to their standard GP, and their
Speaker 5: standard GP is going no, no, you don't need that.
Speaker 5: And you go to the people who are selling them
Speaker 5: directly and that's their purpose and they go, well, of
Speaker 5: course you can have that. And so my question is
Speaker 5: about how do we look at that context because I
Speaker 5: don't think we have that data.
Speaker 1: So without that database of prescriptions, we decided to look
Speaker 1: into this further to get a sense of how young
Speaker 1: people are engaging with these medications. Around twenty five thousand
Speaker 1: of you responded to a poll by The Daily Os.
Speaker 1: Eleven percent told us they had used ozenpic or a
Speaker 1: similar drug. We asked the eighty nine percent who hadn't
Speaker 1: used it if they've ever wanted to try ozenpic. Forty
Speaker 1: three percent of respondents said yes. We heard from nurses, surgeons,
Speaker 1: GP and other health professionals who said GLP one medications
Speaker 1: licozenpic are among the most prescribed drugs in the country,
Speaker 1: but it's how people are accessing these drugs, or rather
Speaker 1: where they're getting their prescriptions that has some experts concerned.
Speaker 5: If you Google interested in these drugs. The top hits
Speaker 5: are not results to studies, they're not informational pieces. They're
Speaker 5: links to the companies who are selling it, and medicine
Speaker 5: and marketing should not be disconnected in this way, because
Speaker 5: I can't think of any other medication that happens like this.
Speaker 1: On the next episode of Investigating Ozenpic, we take a
Speaker 1: closer look at the online providers prescribing weight loss medication
Speaker 1: in Australia. We'll look into their duty of care and
Speaker 1: whether or not they're meeting those responsibilities. We'll hear from
Speaker 1: the people who've accessed these drugs through these providers and
Speaker 1: those who've worked for them.
Speaker 5: If these people started these companies to deliberately sell these
Speaker 5: weight loss drugs. There's a gap that says when people
Speaker 5: are going to the doctor and how this conversation with
Speaker 5: their regular GP they're not getting what they need.
Speaker 1: We'll answer all your questions and more on part two.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening to this episode. If
Speaker 1: it's raised any concerns for you, help is available twenty
Speaker 1: four to seven through Lifeline on thirteen eleven fourteen. For
Speaker 1: eating disorder support, you can contact the Butterfly Foundation on
Speaker 1: one eight hundred eighty hope. That's one eight hundred three
Speaker 1: three four six seven three. There are also some links
Speaker 1: to resources in today's episode description.
Speaker 7: My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda
Speaker 7: Bungelung Cargottin woman from Gadighl country. The Daily oz acknowledges
Speaker 7: that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the
Speaker 7: Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres
Speaker 7: Strait Island and nations. We pay our respects to the
Speaker 7: first peoples of these countries, both past and present,