CEO of company that created Ozempic and Wegovy addressed 'long-term' impacts of the drug
The boss of the Danish drug manufacturer which makes Ozempic and Wegovy revealed how he thinks it will affect patients in the long run.
Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen is the CEO of Novo Nordisk, the firm which developed the diabetes drug that has taken the weight loss world by storm.
It's a position he has held since 2017, which is the same year that Ozempic hit the market. Eight years have passed since then, however, it's still not been long enough to get a proper idea of what potential problems - if any - that people taking these medications might run into further down the road.
There's obviously been a host of studies, but it's not even been a decade yet - so we can't fully comprehend how taking drugs like Ozempic now will impact users when they are old and grey.
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Jørgensen does have an idea of what will happen to people weight-wise, though.
A 2022 study suggested that after stopping the jabs, it's a possibility that people may regain their appetites and the pounds that they previously shed.
Both Ozempic and Wegovy contains semaglutide as its active ingredient, which is a synthetic version of a hormone known as GLP-1 that our bodies produce to regulate our blood sugar levels.
The only difference is that Wegovy has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for weight loss, whereas Ozempic hasn't.
When injected with the drug, your body produces more insulin while suppressing the amount of glucose that your liver makes, as well as slowing down how quickly your food is digested. As a result, you feel fuller for longer and don't have as much of an appetite.
When you stop taking Ozempic, you should keep up your healthy diet and regular exercise to avoid fluctuating in weight.
According to the boss of Novo Nordisk - which is Denmark’s biggest pharmaceuticals company - it's not a case of one-size-fits-all when it comes to the drug's overall impact.
Speaking to NBC News in August last year, Jørgensen explained that the long term pay-off is dependent on a number of personal factors.
"We're talking about millions of patients and we'll learn that there will probably be a different grouping of patients," he explained.
"Some will have obesity that takes efficacious treatment for life, because it is an aggressive form of obesity.
"What you will also probably find is that there are patients who, after treatment, change their lifestyle and can actually do without the medicine."
Essentially, this suggests that there's no guarantees - and it's up to the user to keep up a healthier lifestyle and keep the weight off after they quit using the drugs.
Researchers of a study in 2024 found that people who slowly reduce their dosage rather than suddenly stopping the jabs were able to maintain a stable body weight.
Ozempic's creators have also previously shared a host of 'special warnings and precautions' for anyone thinking of trying the drug.
Olivia Burke