TikTok is proving to be an efficient marketing tool for an additional product: weight loss drugs.
Several doctors said promoting recent viral weight-loss drugs, including Ozempic and Wegovy, brought them more success from views to actual business, in keeping with Initiate.
“I used to be giving people information and posting it there, and it just exploded,” Jennifer Harris, a nurse at River Valley Obstetrics and Gynecology in Arkansas, told Insider.
@jenharrisaprn Replying to @whitneyarmer #complex semaglutide #obesity #obesity medicine #slimming #semaglutide ♬ original sound – Jen Harris, APRN
Drugs which might be branded versions of the chemical Semaglutide help the body regulate insulin production and are typically used to treat type 2 diabetes. One drug is specifically approved for weight management (Wegovy) and the opposite is used for off-label purposes, but each have been used to advertise weight loss.
“What makes a video viral is that it will possibly spark some sort of dialogue,” said Dr. Nelson Simmons, Physician at Personal MD Wellness & Aesthetics in McKinney, Texas, in keeping with Insider.
@personalmd Anyone can lose weight! Stop using age, hormones, thyroid, and other excuses you have used prior to now. With all the brand new options to assist people reach their weight goals, I encourage you to hunt medical help. . #egovy #semaglutide #slimming #obesity #chubby #medical slimming #fyp ♬ Pretty Boy Swag – Soulja Boy
Amy Oden, a nurse who works at a spa in Tulsa, Oklahoma, told Insider posting on TikTok is “killing quite lots of recent business” from people of all ages who’ve struggled to lose weight by other means.
What are Ozempic and Wegovy?
Ozempic and Wegovy are the injectable drugs they use Semaglutidewhich helps the pancreas release insulin when blood sugar levels are literally high, thus improving the way in which sugar moves across the body, in keeping with business.
Double-blind placebo study published within the journal The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, it was found that the drug helped people lose a mean of 6% to 13.6% of their body weight.
Ozempic is approved to be used in treating type 2 diabetes, but doctors can prescribe Ozempic for weight loss since the FDA allows physicians to manage “off-label” drugs to patients in the event that they imagine it’s in the very best interest of the patient. It has been approved for this use since 2017, but as The Cut reported, the drug really took off when celebrities like Elon Musk AND Chelsea trader he said he used a substance.
“I’ve written 1,400 prescriptions for semaglutide within the last six months,” said Dr. Holly Lofton of the NYU Langone Weight Management Program.
Risks include increased probabilities of developing thyroid cancer and uncomfortable side effects from nausea to fatigue by company. One other risk is what doctors call the “Ozempic face.” Dr. Gary Motykie, a plastic surgeon known on TikTok, said that “Ozempic face” is when people have saggy faces after taking the drug.
@dr.90210 What’s #OzempicFace and what are you able to do if this happens to you? #Ozempic #OzempicSlimming #OzempicJourney #Plastic Surgeon Explains #The plastic surgeon reacts #News from Plastic Surgery #Semaglutide #SemaglutideFor Weight Loss #CelebritiesSlimming #CelebrityPlastic Surgery #OzempicsHot #weight loss face #WeightLossFace Edition #Cosmetic surgery #Trends in Plastic Surgery #Secrets of Plastic Surgery #Plastic SurgeonTok #Plastic SurgeryTikTok #JessicaSimpson #PostMalone #KyleRichards #ChelseaHandler ♬ Balanco – Staysee
But that hasn’t stopped people from demanding the drug, even those that do not have type 2 diabetes.
The manufacturer of Ozempic, Novo Nordisk, doesn’t officially promote the usage of the drug for off-label purposes. (A spokesperson for Novo Nordisk told Insider that it “doesn’t promote, suggest or encourage the off-label use of our drugs.”)
However the drug brought in significant sales.
In line with The Cut, the corporate’s operating profits have increased by 58% for the reason that drug began selling in 2017. Its third-quarter earnings, reported in November, exceeded analysts’ estimates by 32%, supported by Ozempic, some speculated.
Now, a wave of interest on the Web is increasing the recognition of drugs much more.
TikTok boosts weight loss drugs
TikTok has seen a wave of individuals posting videos of them losing weight while on medication.
In line with an article published in November 2022 Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinologyvideos on TikTok about drugs like Ozempic have thousands and thousands of views and normally feature women of their 20s and 30s.
“The TikTok trend has caused demand for the drug to skyrocket, reducing its availability for people with type 2 diabetes and resulting in global shortages which might be prone to proceed into 2023.” the summary warns. It has supposedly difficult for a lot of to seek out a drug in pharmacies.
Without insurance, Ozempic costs over $800. You can even get just the generic ingredient from compounding pharmacies for less.
Beyond the fee, people have raised concerns concerning the proliferation of injections, starting from the incontrovertible fact that successful people have to be on them to keep up results, ongoing debates about how weight can lead to discrimination by doctors to employersand an increased feeling of fatphobia, like Vox noted.
One other article published within the Canadian Journal of Bioethics warned clinicians to think about tips on how to do that advise patients to lose weightgiven, for instance, that studies have shown that doctors don’t wish to treat obese people and provide them with reduced quality of care.