Downside to weight-loss drug

Stephen Fry has said he used to vomit up to five times a day while taking the weight-loss drug Ozempic.

Celebrities including Oprah Winfrey, Elon Musk and Jeremy Clarkson have praised Ozempic after its slimming effects were first published in 2021.

Fry, describing himself as an “early adopter” of such drugs, said the jab was “brilliant” to begin with but that this did not last long. He told Ruthie’s Table 4 podcast: “And then I started feeling sick, and I started feeling sicker and sicker and I was literally throwing up four, five times a day.

Ozempic, which is administered via a weekly injection to manage blood glucose levels, can be prescribed in the UK by the NHS for Type 2 diabetes.

However, it is possible to obtain an off-label prescription for Ozempic for weight management through a healthcare professional such as a GP or pharmacist.

The Department of Health and Social Care has strongly discouraged such off-label prescription, which is legal and done at the discretion of the prescriber. “The guidance is clear that these medicines should only be prescribed for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes, in order to protect supply for diabetes patients,” it said.

It warned shortages of such drugs can have serious clinical implications for patients with Type 2 diabetes, and has told doctors not to start new patients on drugs such as Ozempic.

Dr Unnitai Desai, the national GP lead for Nuffield Health, said the most common side effects noted by patients were gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, acid reflux and abdominal pain. “These may settle if the dose is decreased but it is also possible that the medication needs to be ceased altogether,” she said.

A study last month suggested that such weight-loss jabs could be a more effective and cheaper treatment for drug addiction than rehab.

Wegovy, the brand name for semaglutide when used to treat obesity, and similar drugs are known as GLP-1 agonists and trigger feelings of satiety and satisfaction.

While increasingly used as a weight-loss tool, scientists are also looking at them as a route to combat forms of addiction.

In the study, opiate addicts given liraglutide — which works in the same way as Wegovy but must be taken more frequently and is cheaper — reported 40 per cent fewer cravings to get high when compared to a control group.