LETTER FROM MONTREAL
Summer McIntosh (swimming), Ethan Katzberg (hammer throw) and Andre De Grasse (4x100m relay)… Like many countries around the world, Canada was passionate about the Olympic Games (OG) this summer. In the media and on social media, commentators continued to admire the athletes’ exploits and the decorum of the host city, Paris. With a total of twenty-seven medals, including nine gold, Canada ranked twelfth at these Olympic Games. On September 8, at the end of the Paralympic Games, the country again ranked twelfth in the sporting competition, with a total of twenty-nine medals won, including ten gold.
But beyond the passion that these games aroused, it was the state-owned Radio-Canada, the official broadcaster of the sporting competition, that came under fire as Ozempic was listed as one of its official sponsors of these Olympic Games. The most advertised anti-diabetic drug, diverted to weight loss, thus found itself alongside Petro-Canada, Hydro-Québec and even Toyota. “Is Ozempic right for you?” Ask your doctor »the announcement proclaimed.
In a column published at the end of July in The Montreal Journal and entitled “The Summer Olympic Games”, the presenter and commentator well known to Quebecers Mario Dumont shares his “fainting” facing “a true partnership between the state-owned company and the manufacturer of Ozempic”The former deputy concluded his article by stating ” born [pas croire] Let it be the idea of the century to associate a global and unifying sporting event with the “miracle” remedy of the moment.” Because the drug in question continues to attract criticism.
Worrying side effects
Marketed by pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, Ozempic was approved by Health Canada in 2018 and is available for sale by prescription. The treatment gained popularity after influencers promoted it as an appetite suppressant. The craze is such in Canada that it is causing intermittent shortages, the latest of which extended into early 2024. The same drug has been approved for weight loss, since May 2023, by Health Canada under the name Wegovy for patients who have received a medical diagnosis of obesity.
But Ozempic’s list of side effects has the medical world worried. In October 2023, researchers at the University of British Columbia published the first epidemiological study showing a link between weight-loss drugs, including Ozempic and Wegovy, and serious gastrointestinal conditions: pancreatitis, intestinal obstruction, bile duct pathologies, and gastroparesis (a delay in the passage of food from the stomach to the small intestine). In early July, another study by Harvard researchers concluded that appetite suppressants, such as the two Novo Nordisk products, can lead to serious and permanent vision problems, even blindness.
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