Ozempic without Illusions. The Race for the Magical Weight Loss Remedy

“Ozempic” is the most discussed drug of the decade, which is currently changing the economics of healthcare. One injection a week has helped millions of people control their sugar levels, effortlessly shed dozens of kilograms, and for the first time in their lives feel that their bodies are under their control. Reuters journalist Amy Donnellan describes in her book the forty-year history of the drug's development: from the toxic saliva of the Arizona lizard and the work of Yugoslav chemist Svetlana Moisov, who sought a cure for diabetes, to the quiet offices of the Danish company Novo Nordisk, whose leadership could not believe that excess weight is a curable disease. “Ozempic” has already reduced obesity statistics in the USA, crashed fast food sales, and made the alcohol industry nervous. But triumph has a shadow side: patients with gastroparesis, pharmaceutical companies concealing severe side effects, and society which abandoned body positivity as soon as an effective weight loss drug emerged.