In another corrupt pharma story……the million dollar Ozempic/Wegovy sales pitch

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/health-obesity-novonordisk-doctors/

We all know my disdain for pharma. I can’t stand the corrupt regime. Here is a fantastic look at how they have hijacked the weight loss industry. Nevermind that the food we consume is full of garbage that leads to obesity, they are all in bed together to make money.

In a shockingly truthful story from Reuters…….. “Obesity, he said, should be treated as aggressively as other chronic diseases such as high blood pressure or diabetes – with lifelong prescriptions. “We are going to have to use these medications,” he said at the June gathering, “for as long as the body wants to have obesity.”

Kaplan’s solution for America’s weight problem closely tracks Novo Nordisk’s financial ambitions for Wegovy. The Danish drugmaker, long known for diabetes medicines, is transforming itself into the world’s biggest weight-loss company. Novo tells investors its target market is the 764 million people with obesity across the globe. Its most lucrative region is the United States, where more than two-thirds of adults are overweight or have obesity and drugs frequently command the highest prices worldwide. Novo charges U.S. customers $1,300 a month for the weekly injection.

If you are overweight or obese, we will just shove this shot in you weekly FOR LIFE or as they say “as long as the body WANTS to have obesity”. Because they allege that once you stop this med, you will gain weight again.

Novo spent at least $25.8 million over the past decade on U.S. medical professionals to promote its two obesity drugs, Wegovy and Saxenda, the analysis found. They paid Kaplan nearly 2 million dollars to travel around promoting these drugs to obesity and weight loss clinics.

That is a LOT of money spent promoting weight loss injections!! Speaker fees alone are over 12 million dollars! Overall, at least 57 U.S. physicians each accepted at least $100,000 from Novo in payments associated with Wegovy or Saxenda over the period. They were an influential group: Forty-one were obesity specialists who run weight-management clinics, work at academic hospitals, write obesity-treatment guidelines or hold top positions at medical societies, according to a Reuters review of their credentials and publications. The drug speaker racketeering game needs to stop. It is beyond time for reform to stop this from happening. It is not in the interest of patient care, it is solely for the purpose of lining the pockets of a healthcare provider who would rather make a quick buck than treat patients. I have never been so grateful for the mini-fridge and microwave in my office so that I never have to talk to a pharma rep or speaker ever again.

“Another speaker at the Cambridge conference was Dr. Donna Ryan, a Louisiana researcher and former president of The Obesity Society, a prominent group of clinicians and researchers. She has accepted more than $1 million from Novo over the last decade, including $600,691 related to Wegovy and Saxenda, the analysis found. Ryan was instrumental in persuading the U.S. Office of Personnel Management to cover Wegovy and similar drugs for millions of federal workers, an agency official told Reuters.” That should be illegal.

““I’m not against the drugs; what I am against is the indiscriminate use of the drugs for everyone,” said Lustig, who has studied obesity for decades. “But that’s what the drug company wants, because that’s where the money is.” This is the bottom line. What started as treatment for diabetes morphed into use for severe obesity but now we are throwing everyone on these meds to lose even 20-30 pounds. That is not obesity, that is overweight, and diet and exercise have been tossed out the window for a quick fix shot each week. The won’t make billions of dollars if we don’t put every person on it that asks for it or qualifies as being overweight.