Skyrocketing demand for slimming drugs like Ozempic, Saxenda, & Wegovy

The demand for appetite-repressing medications like Ozempic, Saxenda, and Wegovy is skyrocketing in the Netherlands, the Telegraaf reports based on figures from pharmaceuticals. The newspaper links the high demand to increasing obesity and weight issues in the country.

Figures from the Pharmaceutical Key Figures Foundation show that the use of semaglutide - a substance in the popular slimming drug Ozempic - increased ninefold in five years, to over 100,000 users last year. Almost 40,000 people used liraglutide, a substance in Saxenda, a threefold increase compared to five years ago. Wegovy is also increasingly popular.

According to the newspaper, the majority of all users got reimbursement from their health insurer for these medicines. That indicates that they were doctor-prescribed.

Weight problems are common in the Netherlands, according to figures from Statistics Netherlands. Half of Dutch adults are overweight, and one in six are obese. Obesity is a difficult development to combat, but doctors see new hope in these appetite-suppressing medicines.

Medicines like Ozempic, Saxenda, and Wegovy contain substances that mimic the natural hormone GLP-1, which is released in your stomach and intestines when you digest food. The medicines send a long-lasting signal of fullness to your brain, suppressing the urge to eat.

Renger Witkamp, a professor of Nutritional Biology at Wageningen University, has always been critical of diet pills, but he sees potential in these new medicines. “These drugs are actually effective, and so far, they have shown few unpleasant side effects,” he said.

However, they won’t solve the obesity issue overnight. The medicines temporarily suppress the appetite, so for them to be a permanent solution, a very large part of the population would have to permanently take medication. That is impractical even without production constraints. They could offer a solution to many people, but society-wide weight problems need to be tackled at the root, Witkamp said. “And that is really what a healthy lifestyle is about.”