Ozempic is synonymous with weight loss for many people, even as they can turn to drugs with other brand names that have been tailored to treat obesity.
The blockbuster Type 2 diabetes medication is not approved for weight management, but it comes with weight loss as a famous side-effect.
“Most people have understood Ozempic as kind of a catch-all for the GLP-1 class of medications,” Dr. Christopher McGowan, a gastroenterologist who runs a weight loss clinic in Cary, North Carolina, tells TODAY.com.
GLP-1 drugs — which include Ozempic and its sister drug Wegovy, as well as Mounjaro and Zepbound — mimic at least one hormone produced by the gut to signal fullness, leading to a reduced appetite.
About 12% of Americans have taken one of these popular medications, according to the KFF Health Tracking Poll.
Journalist Johann Hari, who lost 42 pounds with Ozempic, calls the drugs a powerful tool, but also “a mass experiment, carried out on millions of people, and I am one of the guinea pigs.”
“There’s a concern that maybe they’ll have some effect that we just don’t know in the long term,” Hari told TODAY.com, echoing a worry other patients may have.
So is Ozempic safe?
Novo Nordisk, the pharmaceutical company that makes Ozempic and Wegovy, stands behind the safety and efficacy of all its GLP-1 medicines when they’re used as indicated and taken under the care of a licensed health care professional, it says in a statement to TODAY.com.
Here’s what doctors say:
Are Wegovy and Ozempic the same?
Wegovy and Ozempic have the same active ingredient, semaglutide.
“Technically, they are exactly the same,” Dr. Maria Daniela Hurtado Andrade, an endocrinologist at the Mayo Clinic’s Precision Medicine for Obesity program, tells TODAY.com. Hurtado Andrade is a consultant for Novo Nordisk.
But, “practically, insurance companies will not cover Ozempic for the treatment of overweight or obesity,” she clarifies.
Ozempic is approved to treat Type 2 diabetes by the U.S….
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