Society's demands shape how we deliver medicine to patients

Medicine gets reshaped by society. What I mean is that our priorities are created by the priorities of our society, not really by the priorities of our patients.

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The last couple of weeks have seen society reshaping medicine. Our priorities have been set by the demands of society. The demands are somewhat at conflict with each other.

Mounjaro (a very similar drug to Ozempic) was approved for use in patients with obesity. The drug injection has been very famous because of the internet. It is effective in bringing weight loss.

It's now something that can be prescribed by doctors within the NHS. There are some pretty tight rules around which patients it can be prescribed for, but there it is, the expected arrival of the treatment of obesity.

The drug actually treats diabetes but was found to cause important weight loss. Type 2 diabetes and obesity seem to be versions of the same disease. We think that Type 2 (non-insulin) diabetes is caused by cells no longer responding to insulin.