Ozempic is a diabetes medicine but has been extremely popular for months among people who want to lose weight. The medicine not only works for treating diabetes, but is also said to be effective against obesity. And many people who want to lose pounds are interested in this. Ozempic is now being bought up so much for improper use that Marjolein from Oosterhout is sometimes unsure of her own medication.
“Nowadays I’m no longer surprised if it is no longer available,” says Marjolein Weber-Van Hees (62). She has been using Ozempic for her type 2 diabetes for about four years now and it works well. “My sugars are good, I have lost a lot of weight and I no longer have to inject insulin so often.” Only she’s not the only one who wants the medicine. Ozempic has been on the Dutch market for years, but in recent months a complete craze has arisen around this ‘miracle drug’.
Anyone who enters the search term #Ozempic on TikTok can see for themselves. The hashtag has been viewed more than 1.3 trillion times, with (success) stories from celebrities such as Kim Kardashian, actress Amy Schumer and Elon Musk, owner of Tesla and the social platform lose pounds. The treacherous thing about the ‘miracle cure’? It functions. You lose weight. But that is not the purpose of the medicine and it is not without danger.
“It is certainly not without dangers, because it has a mechanism on your insulin,” says GP Ina Heinsbergen from Mierlo. It’s just that some people don’t care about that risk. “The general public hears about it from celebrities and self-proclaimed influencers without a medical background. But even without them, there was already a lot of demand for Ozempic as soon as it came on the market.” This enormous interest mainly came from people who wanted to lose weight quickly and easily.
Not only Ozempic has appeal. There is also Saxenda, a medicine with approximately the same effect, but intended for people with obesity. The criterion for being allowed to use it as a patient? A BMI above 30 and mandatory participation in a one-year lifestyle program. Only then can you take the stuff. Only that’s not it quick fix that many people hear in the corridors. So they look for a way to circumvent those criteria.
“People try all kinds of other ways to get the drug.”
“People try all kinds of other ways to get the drug,” says Heinsbergen. “Fake signatures, with a fake date that makes it look like they have already completed the mandatory lifestyle program. Or they look for it through an illegal pharmacy. “And that is dangerous. For patients who do not know what kind of treatment they are actually starting, but also for diabetics who really need the medication. Because it’s simply gone.”
But that is not the only thing causing the scarcity. In the Netherlands you can only get Ozempic and Saxenda in the pharmacy with a note from your doctor. In some countries this works differently. Who pays decides. Medicines there go through a commercial market.
“That is of course much more interesting for pharmaceutical companies than the system we have in the Netherlands,” reflects patient Marjolein. “As a result, I have had to change the composition a few times. Then I went from 0.1 mg to 0.5, because my normal dose was not available.”
“They just ran out of stock.”
And that makes Marjolein anxious, she says. As an example she mentions her holiday in Curaçao, from which she has just returned. “I was away for five weeks. Before I left, the question was whether I could get a syringe with medicine. They just didn’t have one in stock.” Ultimately there was one suitable one available at another pharmacy.