Wegovy is released at Swedish pharmacy

NEstra week, the weight loss drug wegovy will be released at Swedish pharmacies for the first time.
In the past, it has only had to be printed to diabetics under the name Ozempic.
Now doctors warn of unknown side effects.
“This should be given under controlled forms to the right people,” says Mikael Rydén, professor of fatty tissue research at Karolinska Institutet, to TV4 News.

The medicine is taken through a syringe once a week. The active substance is similar to a natural hormone that is released when eating and that makes you feel measured.

Wegovy and Ozempic are the same medicine. They are manufactured by the same company – Danish Novo Nordisk – but are used for different things. Ozempic is printed to diabetics and Wegovy to people with obesity, then at a higher dose.

– Many people with obesity testify that they have a food longing that we who do not suffer from it cannot understand. And this drug helps them by calming down this craving for food, says Maria Eklind, medical director at Novo Nordisk Sweden.

Celebbler for weight loss

Ozempic has had an explosive journey – from diabetes medicine to celebrity cure for weight loss in the United States and then the whole world. It has been possible to deceive the medicine even in Sweden by lying about its weight.

The high demand has meant that Novo Nordisk has not been able to meet demand, but now the production is caught up.

And on Tuesday, the drug will start printing to people with a BMI around or over 30, for a price tag of SEK 2,500 a month.

Warns of unknown side effects

But doctors warn that there may be side effects that you do not know. Studies also show that you easily gain weight again when you end up with the medicine.

– This is not a drug that you should take to lose weight this summer. This is for patients who have a severe obesity and who have tried a number of other therapies without it working, says Mikael Rydén, professor of adipose tissue research at the Karolinska Institute.