After content related to self-harm, the Chinese giant TikTok is once again accused of harming the health of its young users. On the social network, the keyword #Ozempic reaches its peak with more than 500 million views: this antidiabetic is causing a sensation on the social network due to its slimming properties, a phenomenon that generates supply tensions and worries doctors.
As Tech&Co has been able to verify, TikTok directly recommends videos related to weight loss when the Internet user searches for the term “Ozempic”. And in the first place it shows sequences promoting the drug, for slimming purposes, by young users.
“I started Ozempic six weeks ago,” says an American tiktoker in a video viewed almost 100,000 times. Wearing leggings and a sports bra, the young woman, visibly much thinner than her in her “before” photos, continues: “I didn’t do any exercise, I just injected the product!”
Ozempic, miracle cure? In fact, this injectable product is indicated for “the treatment of insufficiently controlled type 2 diabetes” in adults, specifies the Novo Nordisk laboratory, which has been marketing it in France since 2019.
Semaglutide, its active ingredient, works by binding to receptors for a hormone that is involved in blood sugar control and stimulates the release of insulin when blood glucose levels are high.
It also slows down stomach emptying, thus reducing appetite and causing significant weight loss, around 10% in a year. A property that has allowed the manufacturer to obtain the commercialization of semaglutide in many countries, including the United States, at a higher dose and under another name, Wegovy, for the treatment of obesity.
In France, Wegovy received a favorable opinion from the High Authority for Health (HAS) in the treatment of obesity at the end of December. Currently it is limited to very obese people with some associated disease.
Pending a decision from the authorities on its price and reimbursement, Wegovy is delivered by the dropper, “unlike Ozempic, which is available with a regular prescription,” says Professor Jean-Luc Faillie of the University of Montpellier.
Result: “Pharmacists found prescriptions” for Ozempic for people without diabetes, as well as “counterfeit prescriptions, used by multiple people.”
The National Medicines Agency (ANSM) called doctors to order, asking them to strictly respect the diabetes indication for the prescription. The ANSM does not see any “particular spike or surge in consumption in recent months”, but Ozempic has experienced “supply tensions” due to increased global demand.
Novo Nordisk admits that its “current supply capacity does not always cover this excess demand”, lamenting “intermittent availability and periodic shortages”.
Jean-François Thébaut, of the Federation of Diabetics, is concerned about a possible “rush” from the French over Wegovy when it is on the national market, especially since semaglutide is “extremely effective” against diabetes.
Obesity specialist Karine Clément, from Inserm, insists on the need, when Wegovy is available, to “adjust your recipe well.” “It is not a ‘magic’ drug. As always in obesity, it must be accompanied by comprehensive management”.
Doctors are also concerned about the side effects of semaglutide, “underreported” according to Professor Faillie, in charge of its pharmacovigilance. “This is the ‘out of the box’ problem: neither patients nor prescribers are motivated to report” potential side effects.
In addition to nausea, “there are also rarer but more serious risks, such as acute pancreatitis, which can occur even with low doses, biliary disorders, rare cases of severe constipation that can lead to intestinal obstruction,” he notes, also pointing to an “increased risk of thyroid cancer” after several years of treatment.
Do we risk a new health scandal like that of the Mediator? “We have more perspective on this pharmacological class,” says Professor Faillie. However, whether to “control” the risks of semaglutide for the benefits in diabetes, “there are always uncertainties, particularly in long-term obese patients.”
“If it is used to lose a few kilos, then the therapeutic benefit is zero, it is only aesthetic while the risks are always present,” he warns.
Source: BFM TV
