The reason Thompson was so eager to get the medication is because last year he lost 30kg taking Ozempic through a strictly controlled clinical trial, acting as a self-described “guinea pig” for the drug.
As one of the only Kiwis using it, he told the Herald its results were obvious.
Finlay Thompson lost 30kg taking part in a trial of the drug Ozempic. He is pictured in his Wellington office (right), and in April 2023 prior to starting the trial (left). Photo / Mark Mitchell.
“It is immediate, there’s no messing about, you start losing weight straight away. It’s kind of astonishing how quickly it has an effect,” he said in an interview at the time.
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Thompson’s weight fell from 138kg to 108kg, caused by having a suppressed appetite and feeling full for the first time in his life.
“It’s unquestionably life-changing, I think I was getting quite depressed actually, I was watching my weight continue to increase,” he said.
But when Thompson’s clinical trial came to an end last year, he was forced off the drug.
Finlay Thompson’s Ozempic ‘pen’, which is administered weekly. Photo / Supplied
Since Thompson finished taking Ozempic a year ago, he said his weight remained about the same at 100kg for about three months, before he started gaining weight again.
He has gained 15kg since – half of what he had lost overall through using Ozempic.
With his weight increasing, he said he “had gotten to the point of thinking about where I could fly to get it”.
“I was going to do whatever I could” to get back on it, Thompson said.
With Wegovy, developed by Danish healthcare company Novo Nordisk Pharmaceuticals, now being stocked in New Zealand pharmacies, Thompson said he is thrilled he and others will be able to start using it.
“It’s been life-changing for me personally,” he said.
It costs him $489 per month, and he injects weekly with gradually increasing doses.
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While it is expensive, he believes it pays for itself, estimating he will save approximately $300 each month on food by purchasing fewer lunches during the week.
“This is an actual solution that works, and I know it works so I’m quite keen to continue.”
Finlay Thompson said the weight loss drug is “life-changing”. Photo / Mark Mitchell
He said losing the weight last time allowed him to lead a more active life, cycling to work and going for walks and swims on the weekend.
“Everything is a little bit easier when you’re a bit smaller.”
While he believes it will help many New Zealanders, Thompson said the price will prove prohibitive for some. He is hopeful it could be subsidised in the future.
The medication is not without its risks, with some raising concerns of potential side effects such as reported vision loss.
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Novo Nordisk said patient safety was the top priority and all reports of adverse events were taken seriously.
“Semaglutide has been studied in robust clinical development programmes with more than 52,000 semaglutide-exposed patients and exposure from post-marketing use of over 33 million patient years,” the company has said in a statement.
It said it was recommended to update patient leaflets for Wegovy and Ozempic on June 6 to include the condition under its special warnings and precautions for use and as an adverse drug reaction with a frequency of “very rare, meaning it may affect up to one in 10,000 people taking semaglutide”.
Ethan Manera is a New Zealand Herald journalist based in Wellington. He joined NZME in 2023 as a broadcast journalist with Newstalk ZB and is interested in local issues, politics, and property in the capital. Ethan can be emailed at ethan.manera@nzme.co.nz.