This is the Weight and Healthcare newsletter! If you like what you are reading, please consider subscribing and/or sharing! In part one we looked at the staggering conflicts of interest and issues with the efficacy in the Semaglutide 2.4 (Wegovy) cardiovascular trial (Semaglutide and Cardiovascular Outcomes in Ob*sity* without Diabetes DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa2307563) especially as compared to the deeply misleading claims in Novo Nordisk’s “
It's even worse than I thought. Thank you for taking so much care to explain all of this.
One of my favorite passages:
"So we’re back to mostly cis white men with a mean age of 61.6, on the lower end of the “overw*ight/ob*se” BMI scale., most of whom have already had a heart attack.
Even though I'm feeling a bit rocky right now (going through antidepressant withdrawal in preparation for new adhd medication and feeling darn ambivalent about that), I am near tears, nay, tears are dripping down my face, at the ongoing saga of pharmaceuticals trying to make money off of normal human beings through statistical malfeasance and all the other shortcomings that become obvious once their work is under the spot light. Don't be surprised if you hear that I've been taken in by the white coats for walking naked through my neighborhood shouting, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more!" followed by "a reverence"* to you, Ragen. (*Once upon a time, before puberty, I was a cute thing in a pink wrap leotard and pointe shoes making such to a matronly teacher from the Joffrey Ballet.) I just dare my PCP to make any more suggestions about any kind of drug therapy for any symptom I have. IMAHAINGTTIAM!!!!!!!
Thank you so much for this great 2-parter Ragen! So appreciate your work and expertise! As an Australian; where the ripples of FDA-approvals are felt; and where many of my nutrition clients are on Ozempic for T2D or being pushed Wegovy for weight loss I wonder where/how this abysmal research passes the FDA? Presumably institutional failing and paradigm investment?
Cannot get over the shoddy nature of these studies, nor their (at this point, willful?!) painful lack of diversity in study group. I'm sadly not even expecting true equity in study group, but damn, 70-90% cis white men and women in an international sample? So fishy
It's even worse than I thought. Thank you for taking so much care to explain all of this.
One of my favorite passages:
"So we’re back to mostly cis white men with a mean age of 61.6, on the lower end of the “overw*ight/ob*se” BMI scale., most of whom have already had a heart attack.
Or, as Novo Nordisk likes to call them “adults.”
Even though I'm feeling a bit rocky right now (going through antidepressant withdrawal in preparation for new adhd medication and feeling darn ambivalent about that), I am near tears, nay, tears are dripping down my face, at the ongoing saga of pharmaceuticals trying to make money off of normal human beings through statistical malfeasance and all the other shortcomings that become obvious once their work is under the spot light. Don't be surprised if you hear that I've been taken in by the white coats for walking naked through my neighborhood shouting, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more!" followed by "a reverence"* to you, Ragen. (*Once upon a time, before puberty, I was a cute thing in a pink wrap leotard and pointe shoes making such to a matronly teacher from the Joffrey Ballet.) I just dare my PCP to make any more suggestions about any kind of drug therapy for any symptom I have. IMAHAINGTTIAM!!!!!!!
Thank you so much for this great 2-parter Ragen! So appreciate your work and expertise! As an Australian; where the ripples of FDA-approvals are felt; and where many of my nutrition clients are on Ozempic for T2D or being pushed Wegovy for weight loss I wonder where/how this abysmal research passes the FDA? Presumably institutional failing and paradigm investment?
Cannot get over the shoddy nature of these studies, nor their (at this point, willful?!) painful lack of diversity in study group. I'm sadly not even expecting true equity in study group, but damn, 70-90% cis white men and women in an international sample? So fishy