This is\u00a0Everyday Science\u00a0with Clare Wilson, a subscriber-only newsletter from\u00a0The i Paper. If you\u2019d like to get this direct to your inbox, every single week,\u00a0y<\/a>ou can sign up here.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Hello and welcome back to Everyday Science.<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve been seeing more than the usual number of stories about weight loss jabs lately, it is because there has been a medical conference in Spain on obesity<\/a> medicine.<\/p>\n I have just returned from there, having contributed to the torrent with a few of articles of my own, listed at the bottom of this email.<\/p>\n Some of the media coverage may have sounded like hyperbole, such as claims that we are entering a \u201cgolden age\u201d of obesity treatment. They are also being compared to statins in terms of their potential impact on public health.<\/p>\n The first wonder drug<\/p>\n The role of statins would certainly be very big shoes to fill.\u00a0These medicines were developed to cut cholesterol for preventing heart attacks, but they turned out to lower risk even in people who don\u2019t have high cholesterol.<\/p>\n As a result, once statins became available in cheap generic versions, doctors began recommending them for most people as they get older, depending on other risk factors. About five million people are taking them in England.<\/p>\n Some doctors have even said the NHS should routinely offer a heart \u201cpolypill<\/a>\u201d containing a statin, aspirin to thin the blood, and two blood pressure medications.<\/p>\n Heart doctors have until recently ignored trying to reduce people\u2019s weight, because it was so hard, said Professor Donna Ryan, an obesity specialist at Pennington Biomedical Research Centre. \u201cIt takes a huge amount of effort, and then weight regain is such a big problem,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Long history of failed diet drugs<\/p>\n But obesity is one of the biggest risk factors for heart disease and a growing one. In common with most western countries, people in the UK have been getting steadily heavier since the 1980s and obesity is now seen as one of the world\u2019s biggest public health problems.<\/p>\n Various diet drugs have been tried over the years, but nearly all have turned out to have dangerous side effects. Wegovy (also known as semaglutide or Ozempic when used for diabetes) is the first weight loss drug to be both highly effective and generally safe.<\/p>\n When Wegovy was approved in the UK, just two years ago, it was immediately controversial.<\/p>\n Critics said we should be trying to fix the unhealthy western diet instead of resorting to injections.<\/p>\n But that is easier said than done. Different governments have been trying to reverse the obesity epidemic through public health campaigns for the past four decades, and no one has yet found a way to do it.<\/p>\n So, the NHS is currently wrestling with how to deliver Wegovy and similar drugs to all those who are eligible, more than a third of the population, without busting its drug budget.<\/p>\n In the meantime, those who can afford it are just paying for the jabs privately through a relatively new set up for the UK, where people buy them through online pharmacies for \u00a3100 to \u00a3250 per month.<\/p>\n The problem here is that people are most likely to succeed with the jabs when they are used under medical guidance. That\u2019s needed to manage side effects, adjust the complex dosing schedule, and to avoid users getting malnourished, a real risk when someone is on a long-term low-calorie diet.<\/p>\n While some of the online pharmacies offer online guidance, others do little more than require people to take a selfie as proof they are overweight and then send the drugs through the post.<\/p>\n Doctors at the conference this week discussed how one overlooked problem is that many people who start weight loss jabs give up within a few weeks or months because they don\u2019t get enough medical support.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/SEI_251240334.jpg\")
People are generally paying privately for Wegovy in the UK (Photo: Tatsiana Volkava\/Getty)<\/p>\n