The inside story of the pharmaceutical industry’s efforts to tackle and monetise obesity with Ozempic and other drugs will be revealed by a Galway-based journalist.
Off The Scales by Reuters columnist and former Sunday Times correspondent, Aimee Donnellan, is a new book on the multi-billion Euro weight-loss industry to be launched at Kenny’s bookshop in Liosban next Thursday, January 22, at 6pm.
A ‘cure’ for obesity has long evaded drug manufacturers, until the high-profile ascent of Ozempic, originally developed as a diabetes medication that targets the GLP-1 hormone. It suppresses appetite, and makes people feel fuller for longer.
The initial research for the drug came from 1980s-era studies into the venom proteins of the Gila Monster, a 1ft-long poisonous lizard from Mexico and the southern USA.
After decades of research and a pharmaceutical arms race, Ozempic’s Danish creator, Novo Nordisk, became the most valuable company in Europe in 2023, outpacing luxury giant Louis Vuitton Móet Hennessy (LVMH ).
More recently, it has struggled to compete with its rivals in an explosive and lucrative market for weight-loss injections. The treatment is so effective, it has disrupted industries from healthcare to fast food and fashion. Financial investment has skyrocketed, and public demand continues to soar alongside celebrity endorsements.
Through original reporting and rigorous research, Donnellan has uncovered the complicated history of a medical breakthrough which might change the world. She also raises difficult questions about inequality, morality, our beauty ideals and the pursuit of thinness.
Along the way, Donnellan profiles the female scientist whose contributions to the discovery of GLP-1 were overlooked. She also recounts powerful testimonies from some of the earliest Ozempic users.
Off the Scales is an urgent study of modernity, inspired by Donnellan’s “day job” of covering food and medical companies for Reuters. The Knocknacarra native said she was “well placed” and immersed in the financial elements of companies integrated with the weight loss industry from 2023. “This was before Ozempic was mentioned publicly by people such as Oprah and Elon Musk. I realised there was a much bigger story here,” she told the Advertiser.
Donnellan is a columnist at Reuters, where her reporting has focused on the pharmaceutical, airline and insurance industries since 2017.
She was previously The Sunday Times’ banking correspondent, and covered bond markets. She holds degrees from the University of Galway and the London School of Journalism.
Based in London until recently, Donnellan has returned to Galway with her wife and two children. Off the Scales is her first book.
See www.kennys.ie
