One of the great concerns given the avalanche of good results of Ozempic y Saxenda It is its indiscriminate use and on people who do not really need it. José Manuel García, member of the Board of Directors of the Spanish Diabetes Federation (FEDE), is blunt: “This is not to lose two or three kilos. It’s a weapon against obesity and diabetes. For patients.” The forcefulness of his words is due to the fact that their use became popular through social networks months before the summer and then there was a stock outage and a shortage of them.
“In fact, it is getting worse and worse, because it is no longer just Ozempic, Saxenda (liraglutide) has also broken stock. We have a shortage problem,” explains Olga González, head of the Endocrinology Service at the Gregorio Marañón Hospital in Madrid.
And he emphasizes that “is not intended for slightly overweight patients, that what they should do is modify their lifestyles. In some private clinics it is being offered for people who want to lose six kilos but that is not appropriate. The drug should be reserved for people with obesity, which is a very serious disease.“.
Clotilde Vázquez, head of the Endocrinology and Nutrition department of the Jiménez Díaz Foundation (FJD) is also blunt: “Given what has happened, we believe that the prescription of obesity drugs should, at least initially, be limited to obesity units or very specific situations. “We must avoid this situation.”
Because, as the head of the FJD explains, “right now, simply with a membership number the drug can be prescribed. It can be prescribed by an aesthetic or sports doctor. I think the use has been trivializedsometimes indicating it to lose a few kilos and that has an impact on the treatment of patients with very serious problems, such as obesity or diabetes.