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Science Weekly

Are weight loss injections the solution to the obesity crisis?

Science Weekly

The Guardian

Science

4.21K Ratings

🗓️ 21 February 2023

⏱️ 13 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Ian Sample speaks to Guardian science correspondent Nicola Davis about the news that Wegovy, an appetite suppressant popular with celebrities in the US, will soon be sold at UK pharmacies. It’s a prescription drug aimed at helping people with obesity lose weight, but some argue it doesn’t tackle the root cause of the disease. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is the Guardian.

0:09.0

It's the drug that Hollywood celebrities and billionaires like Elon Musk are using to shed huge amounts of weight in a matter of weeks.

0:17.0

When Twitter owner Elon Musk got slimmer, crediting fasting and Wagovi a a weight loss drug it went viral and now a version of it is coming here if you have a prescription

0:28.7

pharmacies here in the UK it's a begin selling a controversial weight loss jab. It's called Wegovi or Semag Lutide and it will be

0:37.0

available with a prescription and it works by suppressing appetite. With a quarter of adults in England now classed as having obesity, some see the Jabs as a

0:46.9

potential game changer in the fight against the disease that cost the NHS 6 billion pounds a year.

0:54.0

But when the causes of obesity are so complex and personal,

0:58.0

is there a danger that a quick fix

1:00.0

won't address the root cause of the disease and could it even increase stigma?

1:05.6

From the Guardian I mean sample and this is science weekly. Nicola Davis, you're a science correspondent for the Guardian and you've written about these

1:20.6

new weight loss injections.

1:23.2

First of all, Wegovie isn't the first weight loss jab

1:26.5

approved here in the UK.

1:28.4

A drug called Saxeender, which is made by the same company,

1:31.6

is already available.

1:33.5

So what makes Wigovi different?

1:36.2

So the one that's been around for a while

1:38.2

is called Saxender and the drug it contains

1:40.4

is called Lyraglutide.

1:42.0

The other drug, Wigovi, is a new

1:45.0

new kid on the other drug, Wagoe, is a new kid on the block and that contains a drug called

1:47.5

semagglutide and the difference really is that the semagglutide

...

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