"It could be the next opioid crisis": the author warning the world about Ozempic

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What are the concerns about the drug falling into the wrong hands?

Before the pandemic, we had the highest rate of eating disorders in British history. And then during the pandemic, it went up. What these drugs do is give you an unprecedented tool to amputate your appetite. And I'm very concerned that there could be an opioid crisis-like death toll from young girls - and it is overwhelming young girls - and boys starving themselves.

What needs to be done to safeguard the drug?

We need to massively tighten the rules around prescription. What Dr. Kimberly Dennis, who's one of the leading eating disorders experts in the US, said to me is that people should have to go to a physical, in-person appointment to get the drugs. They should have to check your BMI, and those doctors should be trained in spotting eating disorders.

There are people who are overweight or obese using these drugs to come down to a healthy weight. And then there are people who are already a healthy weight, or indeed skinny, who are taking them to be super skinny. And there's a very different risk calculus between those people.

What will happen when these drugs do become more widely available for weight loss, and no longer just for the rich and famous?

Certainly, access will broaden and then the NHS will start prescribing it to severely overweight people. But eight years from now, when Ozempic goes out of patent, it will cost about a pound a day, and it'll be in pill form. At that point, one of the leading heart disease specialists in Britain said to me his prediction is that 30% of British people will be taking it. That's crazy, and will have massive consequences for us.

Barclays Bank commissioned a financial analyst called Emily Field to look at these drugs to guide their future investment decisions. And she came back and said, 'If you want a comparison, you've got to look at the invention of the smartphone'. That's how explosive this will be.

It could be that the harms of these drugs outweigh the benefits. I suspect that the most likely scenario is that we're already beginning to see lots of unpredictable effects. Some of them will be very good, some will be very bad. We will have a lot more sense of it in the next few years.

As Ozempic and similar drugs become more widespread, how can we make sure people aren't subject to stigma over their weight?

Stigma is a form of cruelty. 42% of women with a BMI higher than 35 are getting assaulted every single day. We need to all oppose it. We also, where possible, need to reduce obesity, because it harms health on average. As one of the wisest body positivity advocates, Shelley Bovey, said to me: it's not either or - it's both. If you love someone who's obese, you both want to protect them from bullying and want to protect them from diabetes, heart disease, cancer and all the other effects of obesity. So I think we need to oppose both.