NHS weight-loss drug
Inside Health
BBC
4.4 • 575 Ratings
🗓️ 7 March 2023
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
James Gallagher asks whether a weight-loss drug on the NHS heralds a new era in tackling obesity? He meets Jan who lost nearly 4 stone after being part of a trial taking a weekly injection of Semaglutide for 15 months alongside advice on meals and exercise. However, when people stop taking the drug the weight starts to go back on. Add to that supply shortages with heightened private demand and some doctors think the drug is as controversial as they come. James unpicks the ethical and societal dilemmas against a backdrop of half the world's population projected to be overweight or obese by 2035.
Producer: Erika Wright
Declared interests
Dr Margaret McCartney: "No conflicts to declare."
Prof Sir Stephen O’Rahilly : "in the past has been a remunerated consultant and has had research collaboration with Novo Nordisk."
Professor Naveed Sattar: "consulted for and/or received speaker honoraria from Novo Nordisk, Abbott Laboratories, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Eli Lilly, Hanmi Pharmaceuticals, Merck Sharp & Dohme, Novartis, Pfizer, and Sanofi; and grant support paid to his university from AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Novartis, and Roche Diagnostics. He was a co-investigator in lifestyle trials such as DiRECT and co-lead for STANDby."
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, I'm Greg Jenna and good news, Your Dead to Me is back for a new series. Here we go. Yes, we'll explore Emperor Nero's notorious reign with Professor Marybeard and Patton Oswald. I would not want my daughter having the remote control, not alone an empire. We'll dissect the decadent life of Philippe Duke-Dor-Leon with Tom Allen. I've often tried to pretend I'm an aristocrat and being very quickly knocked down. |
| 0:23.0 | And there'll be so much more with comedians like Olga Koch, Mike Mosniak and Rihalina. |
| 0:26.9 | I'm excited. |
| 0:27.6 | You're dead to me. |
| 0:28.5 | The comedy podcast that takes history seriously. |
| 0:30.9 | Listen first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:33.1 | Hello there and welcome to the Inside Health podcast with me, James Gallagher. |
| 0:41.3 | First. Hello there and welcome to the Inside Health podcast with me, James Gallagher. First thing I did when I had lost all the weight was half hour flight in a tiger moth. |
| 0:47.3 | It was bought for my 60th birthday as a present and I was too heavy to do it |
| 0:52.3 | because there's a maximum weight limit. |
| 0:54.8 | I was way over that and that's why it was so significant that I was there because I had lost |
| 1:00.5 | all this weight, something I'd never been able to do without the smegletide. |
| 1:05.7 | Then you flew. |
| 1:06.9 | I was flowing in more ways than one and boy did I enjoy it. |
| 1:13.3 | Well, you heard Jan mention it, Samagletide. |
| 1:16.5 | It's a weight-loss drug, and it's been called a new era in tackling obesity. |
| 1:21.8 | And we know excess weight increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and some cancers, |
| 1:28.2 | and at the same time, the usual medical mantra of diet and exercise, |
| 1:32.5 | diet and exercise, has failed to turn the tide. |
| 1:36.0 | By 2035, half the world's population, yes half, is projected to be either overweight or obese. |
| 1:43.4 | And against that backdrop, a seemingly simple jab that sheds the pounds is making huge waves. |
| 1:50.3 | Game-changing weight loss drug to be made available on the NHS. |
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