How anti-obesity drugs are disrupting health and the economy

is”I lost 30 kg in a year and a half to stabilize at 95 kg. At 1 meter 66, I am still considered obese, but my life has changed“, smiles Marie-Hélène Crapillon. The 50-year-old dental assistant’s overweight prevented her from bending down to clean her workstation and made it difficult for her to walk. These difficulties are now behind her. For two years, on the prescription of her endocrinologist, NÃ ®moise injects herself every week with doses of Wegovy, Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk’s star drug. Her bulimic cravings have subsided, eating too much fat makes her sick and “The feeling of satiety comes more quickly, says the fifty-year-old. Instead of eating a bag of chips in an hour, I can keep them down for a week.is”

Marie-Hélène Crapillon isn’t the only person whose life has been changed by Vegovy. Former English Prime Minister Boris Johnson certainly stopped taking it because he could not tolerate the side effects, mainly digestive problems. But Elon Musk has also touted its benefits for weight loss, as has Oprah Winfrey. “The fact that I have a medically approved prescription to control my weight and stay healthy in my life feels like a relief, a redemption, a gift.”Magazine announced in December people A former American television star whose figure anomalies have been a topic of conversation throughout her career. Last Thursday, she announced her impending departure from the board of directors of WeightWatchers, of which she has been a member for nearly ten years, and the donation of her shares to the National Museum of History and Afro-American Culture in Washington. , the cold shower had an effect on Wall Street: the share price of the group specializing in food fell 18%…

The recent development of a new generation of anti-obesity drugs has caused upheaval, and not just for the first patients and the laboratories that developed these molecules for the pharmaceutical companies. If it has not yet had a widespread impact on health and public accounts in Western countries, the phenomenon is becoming social in the United States, where Vegovi is available from 2021. Its side effects are felt in a number of industries: pharmacy, of course, but also distribution, the food industry and catering…

In the United States, it is a real social phenomenon, no longer limited to the American West Coast.

Thomas Crosier, partner at Kearney

In the United States, examples abound of obese or overweight people becoming fans of Wagovi or its competitor, Zapbound…