Ozempic might be 'ubiquitous,' but it's not for everyone, says diabetes researcher
CBC
If you've never heard of Ozempic, you likely will.
From ads on television to transit vehicles in Toronto — even behind home plate at the Rogers Centre —the drug is being pushed by an aggressive advertising campaign by manufacturer Novo Nordisk.
It's also making headlines — for shortages and crackdowns on its use, including an American who was stripped of his Canadian medical licence after he was tied to some 11,000 prescriptions for the drug south of the border.
So what is Ozempic?
In 2018, Health Canada approved the drug to treat adults with Type 2 diabetes.
By law in Canada, ads can't say much more than "ask your doctor," so we asked one.
Dr. Stewart Harris is the medical director of the Primary Care Diabetes Support Program at St. Joseph's Healthcare in London, Ont., and the Diabetes Canada chair in diabetes management at the Schulich School of Medicine at Western University.
"Ozempic is a very potent form of the natural occurring hormone," he said. "It's exactly a replication, with some minor modifications, of a naturally occurring human hormone GLP-1 [or, glucagon-like peptide-1]."
Ozempic, like Rybelsus and Wegovy, has the same active ingredient. How they differ, Harris said, is that while Ozempic comes in an injectible pen, Rybelsus is in pill form. Wegovy is also taken through an injection pen, but while it's approved by Health Canada, it's not commercially available in this country.
Known by the trade name "semaglutide," the medications help lower blood sugar by working the same way GLP-1 does, by promoting insulin production, slowing food from leaving the stomach and stimulating the part of the brain that promotes appetite reduction, Harris said.
"It's like a super dose of this hormone. It's a very potent blood glucose or blood sugar lowering agent for people with diabetes, and that's what Ozempic is prescribed, and designed, and been tested and evaluated for — as a diabetes drug.
"It is a fantastic drug to treat people with diabetes," he said. Not only does it lower blood sugar, he added, but in many cases, it gets people off insulin and the medicine has been tested to protect against future heart disease or stroke in people at risk, something he called a "win, win, win."
"Of course it's being used beyond that."
Health Canada says on its website there are reports in the news and social media that Ozempic is being used as well for weight loss, adding that's "not an approved indication."
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