Ozempic has arrived in the UK: What you should know about the Hollywood ‘skinny jab’
You can literally buy it in Boots
Fasting, drinking coffee, popping appetite suppressant pills, sucking on “flat tummy” lollipops: Get thin-quick strategies are everywhere. Diet culture is dark. Inescapable. And now a new perfect body product has arrived in the UK via the shelves of Boots: Semaglutide.
Known by the brand names Ozempic and Wegovy, Semaglutide has been gaining popularity on TikTok (#Ozempic currently has 769.7million views) since the Daily Mail and VICE reported Kim Kardashian had used the drug to speedily and scarily slim into her Met Gala Marylin Monroe dress last May.
Considered one of Hollywood’s “best kept” diet secrets, comedian Chelsea Handler, Shahs Of Sunset’s Golnesa GG Gharachedaghi and even Elon Musk have all admitted to staying skinny using the “miracle” obesity drug, which functions by stimulating insulin and regulating blood sugar. Both Khloe Kardashian and Julia Fox have denied accusations they’re using.
GPs in England will start offering Semaglutide to some patients through a two-year £40m pilot scheme the Prime Minister hopes will help tackle obesity. So, as Google searches for “Wegovy results”, “weight loss injections” and “how long does it take for Wegovy to work” explode, The Tab spoke to experts about the diabetes drug re-surging the 00’s depressing obsession with thinness both in the showbiz world and on social media:
It’s scarily easy to get
Semaglutide was never intended to be accessible to everyone. Originally, Ozempic was designed as a drug for diabetics, while the variation of the drug coming to UK shelves, Wegovy, has been marketed as a weight loss tool. But, even then, you’re meant to meet a certain weight in order to be eligible.
But currently, all you have to do to access Wegovy, which claims to help people lose “15 per cent of their weight in a year” through regulated appetite and reduced cravings, is fill in an online health questionnaire on Boots’ website.
“Vetting processes aren’t stringent enough,” says physician and epidemiologist Dr. Nsisong Asanga. “People have been able to access the drugs without meeting the weight criteria [a BMI of 30] or getting a prescription [soon available on the NHS].”