The Scene: The year is 2015. A fortune teller at a party tells you that in less than a decade, a magazine headquartered in the epicenter of fashion show runways, Midtown Manhattan, will be featuring an article on a medication for type 2 diabetes that has garnered unprecedented popularity. No way metformin is going to make headlines in a fashion and culture publication,” you think. You graciously excuse yourself to converse with another party guest.
Present Day
Turns out the fortune teller was right.
In June 2024, Vanity Fair published an article on counterfeit Ozempic. Not quite known for being synonymous with the New England Journal of Medicine, Vanity Fair’s mission statement emphasizes that their publication “stands for ambitious storytelling, iconic images, and incredible experiences, including the legendary Vanity Fair Oscar Party.” In the article, “Why Counterfeit Ozempic Is a Global Growth Industry,” the previously hushed workings of the underground pharmaceutical world is brought to street level knowledge.
The article reported that "on December 21, the FDA blasted out an alert: Counterfeit Ozempic had been detected in the legitimate drug supply.”
For a drug initially designed to treat type 2 diabetes, Ozempic has been re-designed, rebranded, reformulated, and most concerningly, redistributed through any online space that integrates with an e-commerce capability.
An article from Wired cited LegalScript’s monitoring of false advertising claims for GLP-1, which spiked over the course of 2024.
What’s the Point?
Even sites such as Etsy, is selling creative ad templates for businesses looking to sell semaglutide products.
When a publication such as Vanity Fair, a source for updates on the latest Blake Lively or Melania Trump gossip, is talking about the potential dangers of compounded semaglutide medications, this is a wake-up call for the medical community. Although Vanity Fair comes with decades of brand recognition, readers associate the publication more so along the lines of movies such as The Devil Wears Prada (which was based on an intern’s experience at Vogue Magazine).
Media companies such as the Skimm, which publishes a daily newsletter “skimming” the highlights of world news that targets millennial and Gen Z female readers are partnering with Noom to promote their compounded GLP-1 medication.
Let’s be frank: these aren’t medical studies cited from reputable scientific medical journals such as the JAMA Network’s coverage of risk assessment of compounded semaglutide medications.
How Did We Get Here?Due to the unprecedented demand for semaglutide medications such as Ozempic and Wegovy, shortages have also caused an increase in patients turning to compounded versions as an alternative. Although widely available and only
Two significant factors have driven patients to turn to compounded versions:
Prohibitive costs of semaglutide medications, such as a monthly supply for Wegovy with an out-of-pocket amount of $1,349.02 and $935.77 for a monthly supply of Ozempic
Prolonged shortages, despite claims from pharmaceutical reps visiting medical offices with drug samples
Yes, compounded alternatives are marketed for a fraction of the name-brand out-of-pocket costs- even as low as $99, making them highly desirable to a patient’s wallet. However, for physicians who treat populations who are either overweight or suffer from obesity, the risks of patients turning to compounded versions of semaglutide drugs can not be ignored.
With the absence of rigorous clinical trials required for FDA approval, the efficacy, safety, and quality of compounded formulas is inconclusive, at best. Compounded semaglutide formulations are prepared by compounding pharmacies and often combine semaglutide with other agents, such as vitamin B12, or even different salt forms, according to the FDA.
There are issues with patients purchasing counterfeit semaglutide drugs. When a serious “weight loss medication” is made available on Amazon, something is wrong.
According to a study published by the JAMA Network, nearly half of “online pharmacy” links led to illegal operations.
Some compounded formulations include additional ingredients, such as B12 or other peptides, without robust clinical evidence to support their safety or efficacy. These additives may introduce unforeseen side effects or interactions.
Due to the buzz around everything involving semaglutide medications, along with considering bariatric surgery as an option to permanently treat obesity has fallen- much like a second or third page Google search result.
What about long-term effectiveness? The statistics are favorable. For a gastric bypass procedure, patients on average have maintained 60% loss of excess weight after ten years. For a gastric sleeve, it is 57% after ten years.
What happens when semaglutide medication patients stop using these drugs due to the understandable inability to sustain the financial burden of purchasing these drugs, or because they reached their goal weight? The needle on the scale moves back to the right.
What happens 10 years post-bariatric surgery? As it turns out, the needle, which moved to the left after the procedure, stayed put.
Patients using FDA-approved medications such as Wegovy and Mounjaro designed for those who are overweight or suffer from moderate obesity are achieving incredible weight loss goals within a relatively short period of time. However, with the risks of non FDA-approved compounded formulas more present than ever, the long-term expense for patients, and the misuse of the medication for patients whose BMIs and are over 40 and accompanied with other weight related diseases, bariatric surgery is still a safe, permanent option.
Two favorable outcomes show bariatric surgery only carrying a 4% risk of complication, and a 0.1% mortality risk. With this in mind, it is safe to say resuming the conversation with patients who would benefit from a surgical approach offers a permanent long-term solution with decades of evidence.
For more information on the bariatric procedures Dr. Korman specializes in, contact our office today.
Kommentare