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It looks like each week, there is a new headline concerning the health benefits of GLP-1s, the brand new class of injectable weight reduction medication like semaglutide, the energetic ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy.
Nevertheless, in a brand new editorial published in the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, a bunch of public well being specialists identified that the companies funding the research into these drugs and their security are sometimes the identical ones making billions of dollars from their runaway popularity.
Of their commentary, the Duke-led group of well being researchers recommend that there is a obtrusive battle of curiosity when firms like Novo Nordisk, the maker of Ozempic and Wegovy, provoke analysis into the security and efficacy of those medication.
As these consultants level out, studies have shown that “scientific trials sponsored by pharmaceutical firms usually tend to yield favorable outcomes for firm merchandise than impartial trials.”
This so-called “sponsorship bias” cannot solely result in favorable educational papers, however related boosterism within the media and public notion of the medication. The pattern is additional sophisticated as each doctors and influencers are paid to push the injections with out revealing damaging uncomfortable side effects like gastrointestinal distress.
Together with recommending that organizations just like the Nationwide Institutes of Well being fund extra goal analysis into the security of those varieties of medicine, the researchers additionally stated that social media posts about them ought to be “flagged and accompanied by correct well being info from respected authorities” just like the NIH or FDA — like that nearly three-quarters of sufferers taking semaglutide skilled gastrointestinal issues like nausea and diarrhea.
At occasions, there appears to be stress within the commentary’s takeaways: along with points round potential bias, the researchers additionally criticize semaglutide’s excessive price, saying it makes the drug onerous to entry for the underserved communities who may want it most.
Nonetheless, regardless of debate about whether or not exercise and diet should still be considered the gold standard in weight reduction interventions, the researchers behind the commentary stated that the oft-misunderstood danger elements related to GLP-1s outweigh such criticisms.
“We consider that the potential danger elements and uncertainties of GLP-1 receptor medication and different pharmaceutical choices ought to render life-style interventions because the frontline therapy,” they wrote, “whereas pharmaceutical interventions ought to be offered on a case-by-case foundation for sufferers for whom life-style adjustments don’t produce lasting outcomes.”
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