Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This episode contains distressing themes, including suicide and disordered eating.
For twenty four to seven support, please contact Lifeline on
thirteen eleven fourteen. You'll find some links to more resources
in today's episode description.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Welcome to the eighty second Golden Gloves, Ozempik's biggest night.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Shall we think of this ozembic takeover in Hollywood?
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Excuse me, Jennie, No, he's of ozembic.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
From viral weight loss drug to Hollywood punchline.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
What percent?
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Shouldn't be the only ones whose body fat is one percent?
Speaker 5 (00:36):
When I look.
Speaker 6 (00:36):
Around the room, I can't help but wonder is ozembic
right for me?
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Before ozempic took social media by storm, it was touted
as the miracle drug that could end type two diabetes.
Medications are changing the way that you think about diabetes
and weight management, but also cardiovascular risk management. Once lauded
as the silver bullet to the stars, Ozempic and other
similar medications slowly but surely crossed into the mainstream, bringing
(01:03):
with them new conversations about body image, ethics, health and accessibility.
Speaker 7 (01:09):
There is so much demand. There is demand for this
that outstrips anything we ever say.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
But what does the exploding global popularity of azenpic mean
for young.
Speaker 6 (01:20):
People, the entire body neutrality movement has almost had this
regression where it's like, I don't know, we're actually back
to those sizes that we're trying to get away from,
and here's a drug that's going to fix everything.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Over the next three episodes, we'll explore the new world
of weight loss medication, its long term implications, the medical
and social ramifications of its growing popularity, and how it's
being prescribed and used in Australia Today.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
Medicine and marketing should not be disconnected.
Speaker 5 (01:51):
In this way, We'll.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Speak to experts, advocates and the people whose lives have
been changed by ozempic, for better or for worse.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
From the daily os.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
I'm Emma Gillespie and this is investigating Ozempic Part one.
Ozempic was first approved by health authorities in the US
in twenty seventeen as a medication to treat type two diabetes,
(02:23):
approved for use in Australia the following year. The drug
now generates billions of dollars annually for its manufacturer, Novo Nordisk,
which has become one of the world's richest pharmaceutical companies.
But what is ozempic and how does it actually work.
Speaker 7 (02:40):
So, Zempic's a drug name, and it's a drug name
for what is otherwise known as semaglue tide. Semaglue tide
falls into this family of drugs called glp ones.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
That's doctor Michael Bonding.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
He is the Australian Medical Association Chair of Public Health
and Sydney GP.
Speaker 7 (02:58):
Ozempic is the one that has been talked about so
much in the media, but actually there are two others
that get a lot of coverage as well. One is
called weigov which is just a higher dose version of ozempic,
and another one that is called Munjaro. They act on
hormones in our body and generally they were developed for
diabetes patients. What they did for them was making sure
(03:21):
that the cells work better with insulin, but also then
that gastric emptying is slowed down so you feel fuller faster.
You ended up with people losing significant amounts of weight,
which for many people with diabetes is also a significant
benefit to improving their diabetic control. But for those who
(03:41):
don't have diabetes, that side effect has meant that these
drugs have become increasingly popular for an indication that they
weren't originally put on the market for.
Speaker 8 (03:52):
With those Zampig's popularity for dramatic weight loss, it's been
hard to get. But a new similar drug has the
same active ingredient as ozempig.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Wheregovi helped people lose on average fifteen percent of their
body weight, that's compared with the nearly twenty three percent
achieved by Maunjaro. The battle of the weight loss drugs continues.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Taken as an injection, usually once a week, doctor Bonning says,
ozempic and other GLP one medications start working almost immediately,
within a few hours. For twenty six year old Grace,
the overall experience of weight loss medication gave her a
confidence that she had never felt before. Grace wrote to
(04:35):
us from Brisbane to tell us about her experience. Here's
a bit of her story, voiced by someone else.
Speaker 8 (04:41):
My entire life, I have been slightly overweight since becoming
an adult, working an office job, no longer doing sports,
the weight started to climb slightly. It wasn't until I
moved away from home and experienced a really rough time
that I ended up putting on significant weight in a
short period. This was the start of a number of
health problems for me. I had kidney stones, I had gallstones.
(05:04):
I was generally unhappy and lacking a lot of self love.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Grace has used both ozenpic and Munjaro at different times
since June twenty twenty three.
Speaker 8 (05:14):
Munjaro was significantly more expensive, but it gave me almost
no side effects. Because of that, I was able to
consistently stay on the medication for about six months.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
She lost over seventeen kilos during that time, and since then,
Grace says her life has changed. Her confidence has transformed.
The joined pain she used to feel daily has disappeared.
Speaker 8 (05:36):
I'm not embarrassed to walk up the stairs with someone.
I feel confident that I could physically get myself out
of danger if I had to. The mobility is insane.
The change of perspective is enormous.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Grace said she feels in control of her food choices
for the first time in her life. She details experiencing
a shift in how she thinks about food, what Grace
describes as previous compulsions and food noise all day, every day.
She told us it's a difficult thing to explain to
someone who's never experienced issues with food noise, but Grace
(06:10):
likens it to listening to a loud song on repeat,
and you've got no ability to change the song, or
turn down the volume or take a break. For her,
both glp won medications, Ozempic and Munjaro.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Were like finally someone.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Had given her a remote to listen to something else.
Speaker 8 (06:30):
It was so healing to know that I wasn't just
worse than skinny people, or I wasn't just weak. My
brain wasn't working against me anymore.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Grace's story is just one of the hundreds of positive
anecdotes we received when we asked our audience about their
experiences using Ozenpic and similar medications. Dozens of TDA followers
told us that these drugs have changed their life, that
they've never been happier or healthier. Some of you told
us it's saved your life. We could go on for
(07:04):
hours talking through all the many glowing reviews we received
about Ozeenpic, Munjaro, and we go v.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
But while so many of you.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Did have a positive experience with these medications, hundreds of
you also told us the exact opposite. Several TDA followers
told us they've ended up in hospital after taking ozenpic,
with gallbladder removal being the most commonly reported issue.
Speaker 7 (07:31):
As with most drugs, most side effects are dose dependent.
They often are worse at higher doses.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
We'll be back with more of today's episode right after this. Ultimately,
GLP one medications like ozeenpic are still relatively new, and
that means the full list of side effects associated with
their long term use remains somewhat unknown. GPS and healthcare
providers can report adverse side effects relating to these medications
(08:02):
to the federal government's Department of Health. These reports are
tracked on the Therapeutic Goods Administration's Database of Adverse Event Notifications.
The online tracker includes negative symptoms associated with the use
of any medication, but you can filter down by type.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
So that's what we did. To look at ozepic.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Wegov and compounded products or pharmacy made versions of these drugs,
as well as semagluetide products where the brand name was
not specified. Remembering that semaglutides are a type of GLP one.
GLP ones are these weight loss medications that we are
talking about. On the database, gastro Intestinal disorders, including pancreatitis,
(08:44):
made up around half of the adverse events reported between
January twenty twenty three and January twenty twenty five. But
there's another particularly sinister side effect associated with ozempic use
that's becoming increasingly prominent. I, for no reason whatsoever, and
I hadn't felt like this for a very long time,
became suicidal unable to work.
Speaker 5 (09:07):
It was really quite unexplained.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Mackenzie is a twenty six year old woman who sought
out a zenpic for weight management.
Speaker 5 (09:13):
I've tried diet exercise and haven't been able to get
that to work for the long term.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
But taking ozepic would lead her down one of the
most frightening periods of her life.
Speaker 5 (09:23):
I was really really concerned, and I chatted with my
partner about it, and he was like, well, the only
thing that has changed in your life is you going
on this particular medication.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Suicidal ideation makes up one in every twenty adverse GLP
one reactions reported to the TGA database. Since January twenty
twenty three, there have been three reports of attempted suicide
and separately, two deaths by suicide associated with the use
of these medications. Ozepic was the only product suspected to
(09:55):
be related to both of those deaths. The TGA website
stresses that the reports included in the database doesn't mean
the details of the event have been confirmed or that
the event has been determined to be related to that
specific medication that it's listed alongside. The TGA says it
uses adverse event reports to quote identify when a safety
(10:17):
issue may be present, but it says assessing the safety
of a medication cannot be made using the tracker alone.
Speaker 5 (10:26):
Saw Juniper advertised and decided to go through the questionnaire
that they've got online, put in all accurate information, and
it gave me a prescription for ozenpic.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Juniper is one of a growing number of online platforms
that privately prescribe weight loss medications without requiring face to
face consults. It's a virtual or telehealth service, and while
individual practitioners must comply with compulsory standards, there is no
current mandatory safety and quality standards framework for these platforms.
(10:58):
Mackenzie disclosed to but that she'd been taking antidepressants since
her early teens before she received a prescription for ozenpic.
Speaker 5 (11:06):
So I started receiving that in the mail and injecting
that as per kind of the recommended guidelines. I kind
of had peace of mind that it would cover everything
that was in my medical history.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Mackenzie started on what she said was quite a low
dose of ozempic, but a month later she ramped up
to a higher dose, and that's when she says things
started feeling off, essentially out of nowhere. She describes experiencing
suicidal ideations. Mackenzie shared her concerns with her regular GP,
(11:39):
but that GP is not the person who prescribed her
this medication. She got the drugs through Juniper.
Speaker 5 (11:46):
He said that he'd seen this in a number of patients.
He explained to me how it kind of worked, and
one of the things is that it slows the digestive system,
which then can have negative effects on absorption.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
The medication Mackenzie was taking had stopped her body from
absorbing the antidepressants that she'd been used to taking for
more than a decade.
Speaker 5 (12:04):
I was in such a bad place that he suggested
I go to hospital, stop taking it and contact Gina
pet to let them know that I was no longer
taking it and explain what the side effects of that
had been for me.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Mackenzie followed the advice of her regular GP and stopped
taking ozebic immediately, but due to the slow release nature
of the drug, it took over a month for her
to start feeling like herself again. The twenty six year
old said she was surrounded by the right people and
the right support to get herself back to feeling safe
and happy. She considers herself one of the lucky ones,
(12:38):
but Mackenzie holds broader concerns about what these prescribing practices
could mean that at risk young people.
Speaker 5 (12:44):
The fact that this is so freely available without even
so much as a zoom call or a face to
face check in is really really concerning to me, and
I think something needs to be done regarding the access
people have to this medication. I'm not saying that we
should never use it and that it should be totally
out of the question, but I think some kind of
regulation needs to be put in place.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
So how are these medications regulated and how many people
are taking them in Australia.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
The short answer to the second part of.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
That question is really we have no idea, and that's
because of the way that these drugs are classified by
health regulators and something called the Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme, The PBS.
Speaker 7 (13:26):
Ozepic is funded by the Australian government, so on the
PBS for those people who meet certain parameters around their
type two diabetes, so those people need to be the
ones who are prioritized to get access to it.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Let's break that down.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Ozepic is a PBIS listed drug for type two diabetes treatment,
so because of that, it'll cost a diabetic around forty
dollars a month to access. That doesn't mean it's illegal
to use ozepic for other reasons, but it does mean
prescriptions issued for a purpose other than diabetes, what's called
off label uses, aren't subsidized by the PBS and therefore
(14:04):
aren't tracked by it either. These private scripts also cost
patients upwards of four hundred dollars a month.
Speaker 7 (14:11):
The other two medications are not on the PBS for
that indication.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Doctor Michael Bonning is talking about Munjaro and we go
v but we gov could soon become cheaper for some
people who take it after the TGA recently approved this
drug as a treatment for heart disease in overweight patients.
This means the Medicine regulator has determined there is satisfactory
evidence that we govy is an effective complementary therapy for
(14:37):
adults with both cardiovascular disease and high body mass index
to reduce the related risk of heart attack, stroke or death.
We can find out how many people take ozenpic for
type two diabetes treatment, and we might soon be able
to find out how many people take we go v
as a treatment for heart disease, But for everything else
it's virtually impossible to determine and the scale of the
(15:01):
use of these medications. Doctor Emma Beckett, a food and
nutrition scientist and an adjunct Senior lecturer at UNSW, says
this is an issue that needs to shift urgently.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
My suspicion is the vast number of people accessing these
medications in Australia are accessing them through telehealth and not
through their standard GP. And for me, the question is
why are they going to their standard GP, and their
standard GP is going no, no, you don't need that,
(15:33):
and you go to the people who are selling them
directly and that's their purpose and they go, well, of
course you can have that. And so my question is
about how do we look at that context because I
don't think we have that data.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
So without that database of prescriptions, we decided to look
into this further to get a sense of how young
people are engaging with these medications. Around twenty five thousand
of you responded to a poll by The Daily Ods.
Eleven percent told us they had used Ozenpic or a
similar drug. We asked the eighty nine percent who hadn't
(16:07):
used it if they've ever wanted to try ozenpic. Forty
three percent of respondents said yes. We heard from nurses, surgeons,
GP and other health professionals who said GLP one medications
licosenpic are among the most prescribed drugs in the country,
but it's how people are accessing these drugs, or rather
(16:29):
where they're getting their prescriptions that has some experts concerned.
Speaker 4 (16:34):
If you Google interested in these drugs, the top hits
are not results to studies, They're not informational pieces. They're
links to the companies who are selling it, and medicine
and marketing should not be disconnected in this way because
I can't think of any other medication that happens like this.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
On the next episode of Investigating Ozenpic, we take a
closer look at the online providers prescribing weight loss medication
in Australia. We'll look into their duty of care and
whether or not they're meeting those responsibilities. We'll hear from
the people who've accessed these drugs through these providers and
(17:23):
those who've worked for them.
Speaker 4 (17:25):
If these people started these companies to deliberately sell these
weight loss drugs, that says there's a gap. That says
when people are going to the doctor and having this
conversation with their regular GP, they're not getting what they need.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
We'll answer all your questions and more on part two.
Thank you so much for listening to this episode. If
it's raised any concerns for you, help is available twenty
four to seven through lifelined on thirteen eleven fourteen. For
eating disorder support, you can contact the Butterfly Foundation on
one eight hundred eighty hope. That's one eight hundred three
(18:01):
three four six seventy three. There are also some links
to resources in today's episode description.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda
Bunjelung Calcuttin woman from Gadighl Country.
Speaker 8 (18:19):
The Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on
the lands of the Gadighl people and pays respect to
all Aboriginal and torrest Rate Island and nations. We pay
our respects to the first peoples of these countries, both
past and present.