Off the Scales: The Inside Story of Ozempic and the Race to Cure Obesity

The inside story of the creation of Ozempic and its revolutionary impact on public health.

A ＂cure＂ for obesity has long been the holy grail for the pharmaceutical industry, one that seemed unattainable until recent breakthroughs in type 2 diabetes research led to the development of Ozempic, a weight loss medication that activates a hormone in the stomach called GLP-1, making people feel fuller for longer. The treatment is so effective that it is already disrupting many industries--from healthcare to fast food to fashion--and it has quickly made its creator, Denmark’s Novo Nordisk, the most valuable company in Europe. But the impact of GLP-1s goes far beyond billion-dollar profits; a true long-term cure for obesity could save 40 percent of American adults from dangerous, preventable illnesses. And as more potential benefits emerge, one question looms in the minds of investors, healthcare workers, and politicians: Are these drugs too good to be true?

In Off the Scales, Reuters journalist Aimee Donnellan illuminates the history of a medical breakthrough that is poised to change the world, while raising difficult social questions about inequality and morality. Through original reporting and rigorous research, she forecasts the future of GLP-1s and examines what their explosive popularity tells us about our ideals of beauty and the lengths to which people will go in order to become thin.

Along the way, Donnellan profiles the scientist whose contributions to the discovery of GLP-1 were overlooked, documents her fight for recognition while her colleagues were thrust into the limelight, and offers new insights into the ways that the food and beauty industries made billions while promoting unhealthy and unrealistic body image standards and accelerating the obesity crisis. She also provides firsthand accounts of several early Ozempic users and the transformative effect the drug has had on their weight loss journeys.

Off the Scales is an informative and entertaining study of the unexpected consequences of finally getting what we’ve wanted for so long.

AIMEE DONNELLAN is a columnist at Reuters, where her reporting has focused on the pharmaceutical, airline, and insurance industries since 2017. Previously she was the Sunday Times banking correspondent, and covered the bond market for the International Financing Review. She holds degrees in English and History from the University of Ireland, Galway, and in journalism from the London School of Journalism. She lives in Dublin with her wife and two children. Off the Scales is her first book.