Demand for Ozempic and Wegovy has skyrocketed. How did these pills get so popular for weight loss and why is there a shortage?

Weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy are curiously everywhere—discussed on podcasts, speculated through celeb followers, whispered at dinner parties. The scarcity of the drugs has led to greater hypothesis about who is getting them, as their reputation has exploded.

These kinds of drugs — semaglutide, offered underneath the brand names Ozempic and Wegovy, along with tirzepatide, offered as Mounjaro, and liraglutide, known as Saxenda — all work in a similar way. And they're very effective: One health practitioner informed CBS News that these capsules can assist human beings lose about 15% of their physique weight — greater than preceding generations of weight-loss drugs.

For people who battle with their weight — 73.6% of US adults over the age of 20 consider themselves both obese or obese — they can seem like a miracle drug. Here's what medical doctors say about them.

Who are they and how do they work?

1. Semaglutide capsules work by way of mimicking a gut hormone called GLP1, or a glucagon-like peptide hormone, which "makes the gut hormone work better advertising verbal exchange between the intestine and the talent and makes us feel full and additionally helps decrease appetite." Amanda Velazquez, MD, of the Cedars-Sinai Center for Weight Management and Metabolic Health in Los Angeles. “In general, this tells the body that it is okay to be in a decrease set point.”
2. Ozempic and Mounjaro, which have a barely specific mechanism, are FDA-approved for treating kind two diabetes, whilst Saxenda and Wegovy are FDA-approved for weight loss. Insurance organizations usually seem to be for sure standards earlier than agreeing to pay for one of these drugs.
3. Velasquez says she will prescribe these capsules to sufferers who have a BMI between 27 and 30 — labeled as obese — plus, and have a weight-related scientific condition, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, or sleep apnea.
4. Or that patients with a BMI of 30 or increased — classified as chubby — would be eligible for a weight-loss drug.
5. But these medicinal drugs can have facet effects, such as nausea and constipation. Some speculate that these are contributing elements to weight loss, but Velasquez said "that's not the job of the drug."
6. "The goal is no longer to make someone now not eat," she told CBS News. "The goal is to help any person be in a position to navigate and manage what they eat to have healthful selections and to experience full with these options.
7. Patients ought to also practice a healthy lifestyle in conjunction with medications, says Velazquez.
8. Dr. Holly Lofton, who specializes in weight problems medicinal drug at NYU Langone, said she prescribes these pills to people who are not technically chubby or overweight. Being overweight or overweight - a exercise regarded as off-label prescribing.
9. "We're nevertheless following up on patients and making sure they have a life-style diagram and we're following it," she said. It's no longer that we supply it to them and say appropriate success on your own. "
10. Lofton said she wouldn't give a affected person with a regular BMI Ozempic or Wegovy because the pills could put them at a less than highest quality weight. But in addition to BMI, it also regarded at elements such as race and co-morbidities.
11. “Suppose there used to be a affected person of Asian descent with a BMI of 25 — that BMI is technically obese in an Asian patient — and that they have fatty liver. This affected person qualifies in my idea due to the fact no longer only is she obese as a diagnosis, however He has a comorbidity, even if the pointers don't say so."
12. Lofton stated she wouldn't prescribe these pills to people with a records of thyroid cancer or pancreatitis — research have discovered they can increase the danger of thyroid cancer in rodents, and researchers haven't explored their impact in people with medullary thyroid cancer or a family history. of thyroid cancer. Thyroid cancer.
13. Velasquez stated it is no longer but recognized how the tablets will have an effect on humans who are not obese or obese, because the capsules have now not been examined in these patients.

How effective are they?

• The primary driver of demand, Velasquez said, is that these capsules are very effective. "That's what without a doubt obtained the attention and interest," she said. "Providers are greater interested in trying this due to the fact they can see increased adjustments in their patients' health, and there is more demand due to the fact they can see a advantage from this."
• Dr. Alex Foxman of Achieve Health and Weight Loss, a scientific clinic that specializes in weight-loss packages in Beverly Hills, has seen how high-quality these drugs are—because he prescribes and uses them himself.

"I'm fifty one A yr ago, I weighed a hundred ninety pounds, which puts me at a BMI of 27, which is overweight," he said, including that he was having a difficult time maintaining his weight off, notwithstanding making an attempt weight loss plan and exercise. “I bought semaglutide a yr ago and in three and a half months I lost 30 pounds.

"It used to be in all likelihood one of the most high quality and awesome experiences I've had as a physician or as a person," he said. "I decreased my appetite; I felt full faster. There are some side effects, but common I saved to a wholesome program, exercised and continued to do so, and I've been able to preserve my weight now for seven months."