The CEO of a pharmaceutical giant has urged the government to inject obese Australian children with controversial weight loss drugs manufactured by his company.
Mike Doustdar, chief executive of Ozempic and Wegovy maker Novo Nordisk, told the National Press Club in Canberra on Monday that childhood obesity was a “ticking bomb” and pushed for more government subsidies for appetite-suppressing GLP-1 medicines under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
Mr Doustdar also suggested companies should buy weight loss drugs for their workers in order to increase productivity during the speech, delivered after Novo Nordisk signed a research agreement with the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute tackle obesity in children in the Pacific with Wegovy.
“A child born in Queensland today may have a lifespan four to five years less than their parents, not because of war, not because of famine, but because of obesity,” he said.
“Living with overweight and obesity is more than carrying extra weight. It’s the gateway to chronic disease. Chronic disease has become the health challenge of the century. We cannot ask them to wait, they need help today.”
When asked whether the public health system should give children weight loss drugs instead of focusing of lifestyle factors, Mr Doustdar said urgent action was needed, The Nightly reported.
“It’s a ticking bomb that our children and adolescents are right now becoming more and more obese across the world and we need to find solutions,” he said.
“The first and foremost solutions are some of the things that I spoke to, healthier environments, healthier school, taking care of exercise and food intake. But we are also making sure that our products are being tested and tried on adolescents and making sure that they are safe, so if support and help is needed on that front it’s available.
“So we don’t discriminate the age.”
The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) in December issued new safety warnings for GLP-1s, including semaglutide, the drug sold by Novo Nordisk to treat diabetes and as an anti-obesity medication under the brands Wegovy and Ozempic.
One warning noted that they were linked to suicidal behaviour and ideation, and noted 85 related reports to the TGA’s Database of Adverse Event Notifications by September 23 last year for all types of GLP-1 drugs, including two suicides and four suicide attempts.
The TGA also warns that Wegovy can cause gastrointestinal adverse reactions, acute pancreatitis, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain.
There have been no clinical trials longer than 68 weeks on the drug’s safety or efficacy in adolescents.
Some research has also suggested that while GLP-1 drugs show weight loss during clinical trials, the weight is regained rapidly after stopping use.
Header image: Mike Doustdar speaks at the National Press Club (7News).
