The indiscriminate use of slimming pens worries the authorities

The use of the drug Ozempic, a slimming pen that has semaglutide as the active ingredient, has worried doctors and health authorities. The product has become a “fever,” mostly due to celebrities reporting rapid weight loss.

Singer jojo todynho went on social media to show that he uses the pen to lose weight and, soon, the manufacturer, Novo Nordisk, manifested himself, in a note, stating that he does not support the “promoting information off-label, i.e. disagreeing with the package insert of one’s products”.

This Wednesday (29), in a joint statement, the Brazilian Association for the Study of Obesity (ABESO) and the Brazilian Society of Endocrinology and Metabolism (SBEM) emphasize that obesity is “a chronic, complex, multicausal, difficult to treat disease” and that medicines should only be used on medical advice.

Watch it in full:

“1) Obesity is a chronic, complex, multicausal, difficult to treat disease. Pharmacological treatment of obesity, always in combination with lifestyle strategies, is recommended in various therapeutic guidelines worldwide to increase the effectiveness of these strategies.

Like any other chronic disease, continued efficacy will depend on continued treatment, and weight gain is expected to occur if drug treatment is withdrawn. The indication of a pharmacological treatment must be made by an expert doctor, taking into account the indications, contraindications, tolerability and patient expectations, not based only on the BMI, but on a wide range of aspects that must be treated in consultation. No drug should be used without a doctor’s prescription and medical supervision.

2) Many articles confuse and confuse what is the serious treatment of obesity with what is the “social desire to lose weight”; the short-term use of drugs for aesthetic purposes (and often without a prescription) needs to be treated very differently than the serious treatment of obesity, which aims to improve health and quality of life.

Many articles also question the need for pharmacological treatment, with great potential to worsen obesity stigma, by treating the disease as a ‘choice’ and drugs as an ‘easy way out’. These claims are not supported by the best available scientific evidence about the disease.

3) Semaglutide is a drug approved for obesity in various countries of the world at a dose of 2.4 mg/week. In Brazil, despite having been approved since January 2, the 2.4 mg dose is not yet on the market. Currently, only the formulation approved for type 2 diabetes is available in the country, with a maximum dose of 1.0 mg.

Therefore, although a priori the use of a 1.0 mg dose would be considered “off-label”, the active substance is currently approved for obesity. Unfortunately, the drug’s high cost prevents it from being used by the majority of our population, who do not have access to obesity drugs through the Unified Health System. The great demand and interest 2 for the drug that motivates these questions is due to its high efficacy compared to other anti-obesity drugs (although there are few direct comparison studies) and good safety profile.

However, like any other drug, it must be sold on prescription. Sales without a prescription must be discouraged and prohibited, and it is up to the pharmacist to pay attention to the prescription and follow the standard protocols of ANVISA.

Therefore, in view of the disclosure of the use of semaglutide, alone spontaneously without adequate medical indication, and the large number of articles produced by the media on the product, ABESO and SBEM address the public to clarify that:

• Medicines for obesity approved by ANVISA have their efficacy and safety demonstrated and should not be condemned, but selected individually within a medical consultation and sold only on prescription. It is the responsibility of the prescriber to monitor the patient and periodically reevaluate its efficacy, tolerability and safety.

• The improper, aesthetic or inappropriate use of antiobesity drugs, in addition to exposing people without indications of use to risks, increases the stigma of treatment for those who already suffer from various prejudices in our society. Stories that exacerbate this stigma may cause people to abandon successful treatments or avoid seeking medical care. As an addendum, we remind you that ABESO and SBEM seek to improve access to obesity treatments for the general population, either by working to reduce bias with obesity therapies (medicated or not), or by seeking, together with public authorities, that we have therapeutic options accessible to the majority of the population, or made available by the SUS, which is not yet a reality”.

The note is signed by doctor Paulo Augusto Carvalho MirandaPresident of SBEM, and for doctor Bruno HalpernPresident of ABESO.