After Ozempic, a new diabetes treatment will arrive in Canada: Mounjaro. This drug is already highly sought after in the United States, but its misuse for rapid weight loss raises concerns.
The drug Ozempic, authorized in Canada in 2019, quickly became a tool of choice for treating people with type 2 diabetes. “It’s a very good drug for diabetic patients,” says Pierre-Marc Gervais, senior director pharmaceutical services to the Quebec Association of Proprietary Pharmacists.
However, the treatment also stood out for its ability to lose weight. In recent months, celebrities, including Elon Musk, have touted the drug’s benefits on social media, while the hashtag “Ozempic weight loss” has more than 344 million views on TikTok, much to the dismay of professionals of health.
Now, Mounjaro, a new treatment also aimed at treating type 2 diabetes, is breaking into the American market and seems to lead to weight loss up to twice as great as with Ozempic, indicates the Dr Rémi Rabasa-Lhoret, endocrinologist and director of the Professional Council of Diabetes Quebec.
This injectable drug was authorized on March 8 by Health Canada for people with type 2 diabetes. However, it is not currently available to Canadians. “The company that manufactures it says that the demand is so strong elsewhere in the world that they are not able, at this time, to supply Canada,” said Mr. Gervais.
Growing use
Ozempic and Mounjaro were designed to mimic the action of hormones produced by the digestive system. “Basically, they’re created to help control blood sugar levels in patients with type 2 diabetes,” says Gervais.
Doctors are increasingly recommending it for diabetic patients for whom other treatments have not proven effective. By the end of 2022, 35,000 Quebecers were using the drug Ozempic each month, according to figures from the Régie de l’assurance maladie du Québec (RAMQ) obtained by The Press. That’s 10,000 more than in 2021.
These drugs also affect the area of the brain responsible for satiety, leading to weight loss, says Dr.re Marie-Philippe Morin, specialist in obesity and metabolic medicine.
Seeing its impact on weight loss, the company Novo Nordisk, which manufactures Ozempic, marketed the same product, under a different name (Wegovy) and with a higher dose, intended for weight loss. . This drug, offered to obese or overweight adults with comorbidities, was authorized by Health Canada in 2021. However, it is not covered by the RAMQ. For its part, the Mounjaro is not authorized in Canada for weight loss.
Risks of drift
Experts are concerned that pharmaceutical companies seem to be banking on weight loss to increase the sale of their products. On Mounjaro’s website, one can read in large print that “people taking Mounjaro lost up to 25 pounds”. Then, it is specified in small print that “Mounjaro is not a slimming drug”.
“It’s a way that is used to stimulate demand for a drug,” says pharmacist Pierre-Marc Gervais. “For someone who is diabetic or not, seeing these dramatic results, it can be very tempting to go to their doctor and ask for a prescription for this product. »
“Right now, the Mounjaro is announcing up to 25 pounds of weight loss,” adds Mr. Gervais.
But what it doesn’t say is that people, once they stop taking the drug, most go back to their original weight.
Pierre-Marc Gervais, pharmacist
This type of also risks “increasing eating disorders”, believes the Dr Rabasa-Lhoret. “I recently met a patient who clearly has a tendency towards anorexia who asked me for this drug to lose weight”, he illustrates.
The director of the Professional Council of Diabetes Quebec has planned to meet in the coming weeks with the leaders of Novo Nordisk, manufacturer of Ozempic. “We are uncomfortable. We would like the company to be clearer [quant au fait] that there are currently drifts”, he says.
“The worry for me, in there, as a professional, is that there are a lot of prescriptions for weight loss and that we end up running out of supplies for our diabetic patients. And they need it right now, ”adds Mr. Gervais.