This is Fresh Air. I'm Tanya Mosley.

Looking to get back in your type 2 diabetes zone,

once weekly Ozemphic can help.

No doubt you've seen this commercial for Ozimpic or maybe you've heard about the

shortages or that Oprah and Elon Musk are using a new class of drugs like Ozimpic to

lose weight or maybe you're on them yourself.

Ozimic, which is the brand name for Somegalotide, is an injectable prescription

originally used to treat type 2 diabetes. But over the last few years, Ozimpeck and other drugs that are classified

as GLP1s have also revolutionized the treatment for obesity. With roughly two out of three adults in America classified as overweight or obese.

These drugs now have people talking about weight loss in new ways.

Even Weight Watchers now offers prescriptions of these drugs to help lose

weight and researchers are looking into how they might help with other conditions

like heart disease and addiction and polycystic ovary syndrome, Parkinson's and even some cancers,

but there's still a lot of research to be done.

And meanwhile, the prospect of finding a cure for obesity

has thrown the demand into overdrive with shortages all over the world,

widening the divide on who has access and who can pay out of pocket for drugs that most

insurance companies don't cover for weight loss. Emma Court has been

reporting on Ozimpic and this new class of weight loss drugs for Bloomberg. She

produced a podcast about the myths and realities of dieting called Losing it. And Emma, welcome to fresh air.

Thanks so much for having me. I've heard that not since the 90s with the introduction of

Viagra has there been a bigger accident in the world of medicine. the

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