Speaker 1: This episode contains distressing themes, including suicide and disordered eating.
Speaker 1: For twenty four to seven support, please contact Lifeline on
Speaker 1: thirteen eleven fourteen. You'll find some links to more resources
Speaker 1: in today's episode description.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the eighty second Golden Gloves, Ozempik's biggest night.
Speaker 1: Shall we think of this ozembic takeover in Hollywood?
Speaker 3: Excuse me, Jennie, No, he's of ozembic.
Speaker 1: From viral weight loss drug to Hollywood punchline.
Speaker 4: What percent?
Speaker 1: Shouldn't be the only ones whose body fat is one percent?
Speaker 5: When I look.
Speaker 6: Around the room, I can't help but wonder is ozembic
Speaker 6: right for me?
Speaker 1: Before ozempic 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 you 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 slowly but surely crossed into the mainstream, bringing
Speaker 1: with them new conversations about body image, ethics, health and accessibility.
Speaker 7: There is so much demand. There is demand for this
Speaker 7: that outstrips anything we ever say.
Speaker 1: But what does the exploding global popularity of azenpic mean
Speaker 1: for young.
Speaker 6: People, the entire body neutrality movement has almost had this
Speaker 6: regression where it's like, I don't know, we're actually back
Speaker 6: to those sizes that we're trying to get away from,
Speaker 6: and 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 4: Medicine and marketing should not be disconnected.
Speaker 5: In this way, We'll.
Speaker 1: Speak to experts, advocates and the people whose lives have
Speaker 1: been changed by ozempic, for better or for worse.
Speaker 3: From the daily os.
Speaker 1: I'm Emma Gillespie and this is investigating Ozempic Part one.
Speaker 1: Ozempic was first approved by health authorities in the US
Speaker 1: in twenty seventeen as a medication to treat type two diabetes,
Speaker 1: approved for use in Australia the following year. The drug
Speaker 1: now generates billions of dollars annually for its manufacturer, Novo Nordisk,
Speaker 1: which has become one of the world's richest pharmaceutical companies.
Speaker 1: But what is ozempic and how does it actually work.
Speaker 7: So, Zempic's a drug name, and it's a drug name
Speaker 7: for what is otherwise known as semaglue tide. Semaglue tide
Speaker 7: falls into this family of drugs called glp ones.
Speaker 3: That's doctor Michael Bonding.
Speaker 1: He is the Australian Medical Association Chair of Public Health
Speaker 1: and Sydney GP.
Speaker 7: Ozempic is the one that has been talked about so
Speaker 7: much in the media, but actually there are two others
Speaker 7: that get a lot of coverage as well. One is
Speaker 7: called weigov which is just a higher dose version of ozempic,
Speaker 7: and another one that is called Munjaro. They act on
Speaker 7: hormones in our body and generally they were developed for
Speaker 7: diabetes patients. What they did for them was making sure
Speaker 7: that the cells work better with insulin, but also then
Speaker 7: that gastric emptying is slowed down so you feel fuller faster.
Speaker 7: You ended up with people losing significant amounts of weight,
Speaker 7: which for many people with diabetes is also a significant
Speaker 7: benefit to improving their diabetic control. But for those who
Speaker 7: don't have diabetes, that side effect has meant that these
Speaker 7: drugs have become increasingly popular for an indication that they
Speaker 7: weren't originally put on the market for.
Speaker 8: With those Zampig's popularity for dramatic weight loss, it's been
Speaker 8: hard to get. But a new similar drug has the
Speaker 8: same active ingredient as ozempig.
Speaker 2: Wheregovi 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 Maunjaro. The battle of the weight loss drugs continues.
Speaker 1: Taken as an injection, usually once a week, doctor Bonning says,
Speaker 1: ozempic 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 8: My entire life, I have been slightly overweight since becoming
Speaker 8: an adult, working an office job, no longer doing sports,
Speaker 8: the weight started to climb slightly. It wasn't until I
Speaker 8: moved away from home and experienced a really rough time
Speaker 8: that I ended up putting on significant weight in a
Speaker 8: short period. This was the start of a number of
Speaker 8: health problems for me. I had kidney stones, I had gallstones.
Speaker 8: I was generally 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 8: Munjaro was significantly more expensive, but it gave me almost
Speaker 8: no side effects. Because of that, I was able to
Speaker 8: 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: The joined pain she used to feel daily has disappeared.
Speaker 8: I'm not embarrassed to walk up the stairs with someone.
Speaker 8: I feel confident that I could physically get myself out
Speaker 8: of danger if I had to. The mobility is insane.
Speaker 8: 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, Ozempic and Munjaro.
Speaker 3: Were like finally someone.
Speaker 1: Had given her a remote to listen to something else.
Speaker 8: It was so healing to know that I wasn't just
Speaker 8: worse than skinny people, or I wasn't just weak. My
Speaker 8: 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 Ozenpic 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 Ozeenpic, Munjaro, and we go v.
Speaker 3: But while so many of you.
Speaker 1: Did have a positive experience with these medications, hundreds of
Speaker 1: you also told us the exact opposite. Several TDA followers
Speaker 1: told us they've ended up in hospital after taking ozenpic,
Speaker 1: with gallbladder removal being the most commonly reported issue.
Speaker 7: As with most drugs, most side effects are dose dependent.
Speaker 7: 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 ozeenpic 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 3: So that's what we did. To look at ozepic.
Speaker 1: Wegov and compounded products or pharmacy made versions of these drugs,
Speaker 1: as well as semagluetide products where the brand name was
Speaker 1: not specified. Remembering that semaglutides are a type of GLP one.
Speaker 1: GLP ones are these weight loss medications that we are
Speaker 1: talking about. On the database, gastro Intestinal disorders, including pancreatitis,
Speaker 1: made up around half of the adverse events reported between
Speaker 1: January twenty twenty three and January twenty twenty five. But
Speaker 1: there's another particularly sinister side effect associated with ozempic use
Speaker 1: that's becoming increasingly prominent. I, for no reason whatsoever, and
Speaker 1: I hadn't felt like this for a very long time,
Speaker 1: became suicidal unable to work.
Speaker 5: 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 5: I've tried diet exercise and haven't been able to get
Speaker 5: that to work for the long term.
Speaker 1: But taking ozepic would lead her down one of the
Speaker 1: most frightening periods of her life.
Speaker 5: I was really really concerned, and I chatted with my
Speaker 5: partner about it, and he was like, well, the only
Speaker 5: thing that has changed in your life is you going
Speaker 5: 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. Ozepic 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 5: Saw Juniper advertised and decided to go through the questionnaire
Speaker 5: that they've got online, put in all accurate information, and
Speaker 5: it gave me a prescription for ozenpic.
Speaker 1: Juniper is one of a growing number of online platforms
Speaker 1: that privately prescribe 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 but that she'd been taking antidepressants since
Speaker 1: her early teens before she received a prescription for ozenpic.
Speaker 5: So I started receiving that in the mail and injecting
Speaker 5: that as per kind of the recommended guidelines. I kind
Speaker 5: of had peace of mind that it would cover everything
Speaker 5: that was in my medical history.
Speaker 1: Mackenzie started on what she said was quite a low
Speaker 1: dose of ozempic, 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 5: He said that he'd seen this in a number of patients.
Speaker 5: He explained to me how it kind of worked, and
Speaker 5: one of the things is that it slows the digestive system,
Speaker 5: 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 5: I was in such a bad place that he suggested
Speaker 5: I go to hospital, stop taking it and contact Gina
Speaker 5: pet to let them know that I was no longer
Speaker 5: taking it and explain what the side effects of that
Speaker 5: had been for me.
Speaker 1: Mackenzie followed the advice of her regular GP and stopped
Speaker 1: taking ozebic 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 5: The fact that this is so freely available without even
Speaker 5: so much as a zoom call or a face to
Speaker 5: face check in is really really concerning to me, and
Speaker 5: I think something needs to be done regarding the access
Speaker 5: people have to this medication. I'm not saying that we
Speaker 5: should never use it and that it should be totally
Speaker 5: out of the question, but I think some kind of
Speaker 5: 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.
Speaker 3: The short answer to the second part of.
Speaker 1: That question is really we have no idea, and that's
Speaker 1: because of the way that these drugs are classified by
Speaker 1: health regulators and something called the Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme, The PBS.
Speaker 7: Ozepic is funded by the Australian government, so on the
Speaker 7: PBS for those people who meet certain parameters around their
Speaker 7: type two diabetes, so those people need to be the
Speaker 7: ones who are prioritized to get access to it.
Speaker 3: Let's break that down.
Speaker 1: Ozepic is a PBIS listed drug for type two diabetes treatment,
Speaker 1: so because of that, it'll cost a diabetic around forty
Speaker 1: dollars a month to access. That doesn't mean it's illegal
Speaker 1: to use ozepic for other reasons, but it does mean
Speaker 1: prescriptions issued for a purpose other than diabetes, what's called
Speaker 1: off label uses, aren't subsidized by the PBS and therefore
Speaker 1: aren't tracked by it either. These private scripts also cost
Speaker 1: patients upwards of four hundred dollars a month.
Speaker 7: The other two medications are not on the PBS for
Speaker 7: that indication.
Speaker 1: Doctor Michael Bonning is talking about Munjaro and we go
Speaker 1: v but we gov could soon become cheaper for some
Speaker 1: people who take it after the TGA recently approved this
Speaker 1: drug as a treatment for heart disease in overweight patients.
Speaker 1: This means the Medicine regulator has determined there is satisfactory
Speaker 1: evidence that we govy 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 v
Speaker 1: as a treatment for heart disease, But for everything else
Speaker 1: it's virtually impossible to determine and the scale of the
Speaker 1: use of these medications. Doctor Emma Beckett, a food and
Speaker 1: nutrition scientist and an adjunct Senior lecturer at UNSW, says
Speaker 1: this is an issue that needs to shift urgently.
Speaker 4: My suspicion is the vast number of people accessing these
Speaker 4: medications in Australia are accessing them through telehealth and not
Speaker 4: through their standard GP. And for me, the question is
Speaker 4: why are they going to their standard GP, and their
Speaker 4: standard GP is going no, no, you don't need that,
Speaker 4: and you go to the people who are selling them
Speaker 4: directly and that's their purpose and they go, well, of
Speaker 4: course you can have that. And so my question is
Speaker 4: about how do we look at that context because I
Speaker 4: 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 Ods.
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: licosenpic 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 4: If you Google interested in these drugs, the top hits
Speaker 4: are not results to studies, They're not informational pieces. They're
Speaker 4: links to the companies who are selling it, and medicine
Speaker 4: and marketing should not be disconnected in this way because
Speaker 4: 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 4: If these people started these companies to deliberately sell these
Speaker 4: weight loss drugs, that says there's a gap. That says
Speaker 4: when people are going to the doctor and having this
Speaker 4: conversation with 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 lifelined 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 seventy three. There are also some links
Speaker 1: to resources in today's episode description.
Speaker 3: My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda
Speaker 3: Bunjelung Calcuttin woman from Gadighl Country.
Speaker 8: The Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on
Speaker 8: the lands of the Gadighl people and pays respect to
Speaker 8: all Aboriginal and torrest Rate Island and nations. We pay
Speaker 8: our respects to the first peoples of these countries, both
Speaker 8: past and present.