Pharmaceutical medicine has a wonderfully sophisticated and successful policy of ensuring their drugs don't work effectively so we need more drugs to deal with their ineffectiveness
Many millions of patients, throughout the world, have been encouraged recently to start taking GLP-1 weight loss drugs (Ozempic, Wgovy, Mounjaro, et al). The promotion of these drugs has, as usual, been superb. So the drug companies who make them have made fortunes. The problem for patients, as always, is that they were largely unaware of their possible adverse reactions.
When GLP-1 weight-loss drugs were introduced it was already known that they caused serious side effects, so much so that they were recommended to be taken under strict supervision for no more than two years. The main problem with these restrictions was that even if people did stop taking them, they were known, quickly, to put the weight back on.
So now patients will be glad to know (sic) that the drug companies have come up with a solution. This Medscape article informs us that there is now a new ‘follow-up’ drug, Orforglipron.
“Patients who lost significant weight … were able to maintain much of that loss after switching to once daily oral orforglipron”.
And, ever eager to help the pharmaceutical industry, the mainstream media has been quick to popularise the message. The BBC’s response can be seen here: “Daily pill to help keep weight off after stopping obesity jabs”. It is not untypical of many other similar articles.
“Trials found that patients given the tablet, called orforglipron, every day for a year avoided regaining much of the weight they had lost - a known risk when coming off GLP-1 injections …. More research is needed to find out how long someone might need to stay on treatment - it might even be life-long, say experts”. (My emphasis).
The study was published in the journal Nature Medicine, external. It was funded by the drug manufacturer Eli Lilly, who also make the GLP-1 jab, Mounjaro (the one used by the UK’s NHS). And as with all pharma funded research it should not be too surprising that it came out in favour of the product, and to the drug industry generally.
So people who may have thought that they only had to take one drug for a maximum of two years have now discovered that they should take another one - for the rest of their lives.
Nowhere in the mainstream media’s promotion of Orforglipron were its side effects adequately mentioned, certainly not to the extent that it enables patients, and potential patients, to make an ‘informed’ choice about whether they should take them. Neither the BBC or Medscape article mentions more than “nausea, vomiting, and diarrhoea” as potential side effects.
Common side effects of orforglipron are given as nausea, stomach (abdominal) pain, heartburn, constipation, headache, gas, diarrhoea, bloating, hair loss, vomiting, tiredness, indigestion, and belching.
Serious side effects are given as inflammation of the pancreas (pancreatitis), severe stomach problems, dehydration leading to kidney problems, low blood sugar (hypoglycemia), dizziness or light-headedness, blurred vision, anxiety, irritability, mood changes, sweating, slurred speech, hunger, confusion or drowsiness, shakiness, weakness, headache, fast heartbeat, feeling jittery, serious allergic reactions, changes in vision, gall-bladder problems,
In addition there is also a Box Warning (that is, the strongest safety-related warning that is issued by the FDA) for “the increased risk of thyroid C-Cell tumors”.
So this is quite a long list of serious side effects that have been ignored by both Medscape, the BBC, the mainstream media generally. And, of course, by the entire conventional medical establishment. And conventional medicine are now promoting a drug that has to be taken for life - plus further drugs to ‘treat’ any of the side effects that develop during the course of their lives.
