THE RISE & RISE OF THE SKINNY JAB

The medication manufactured to treat diabetes has become a hot topic thanks to its weight-loss side effect. With thousands of Australians now taking Ozempic or attempting to get their hands on a prescription, Adrienne Tam discovers whether it’s really a weight-loss wonder drug

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Fast weight loss. Loss of hunger. Weight loss surgery without having to go under the knife.” Before injecting herself with Ozempic, 30-year-old Melburnian Rose never saw any negative stories about the drug touted as a weight-loss “magic bullet”. On TikTok, where the hashtag for Ozempic currently clocks in at more than 995 million views, the testimonials were positive and uplifting.

It filled Rose with hope. Having struggled with binge eating her whole life, as well as being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, the stay-at-home mum says she had always had an issue with weight. “But with two pregnancies – stillborn twins and a healthy two-year-old – plus the longest lockdown in the world, I really lost control of the number on the scales,” she tells marie claire.

So in June last year she started taking Ozempic. Created by Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, Ozempic is the brand name for the drug semaglutide, which is used to treat type 2 diabetes by lowering blood glucose levels. Semaglutide acts to increase the secretion of insulin from the pancreas and slows the rate at which food leaves the stomach and enters the intestine. It also slows the process of that food being absorbed in the intestine, which in turn reduces blood sugar.

“In addition, semaglutide stimulates the brain’s GLP-1 receptors, whose job it is to tell you that you’re full and you don’t need to eat anymore,” explains Professor Michael Cowley, chairman of Monash University’s Department of Physiology and former director of the Monash Obesity and Diabetes Institute. “So basically, it decreases appetite.”