There's now a dangerous black market in anti-obesity drugs

Demand continues to dramatically outpace supply in terms of getting access to the recent second-generation GLP-1 anti-obesity medications.

Inevitably a problematic black market has formed. The UK health agency, MHRA, warns us of the existence of at least hundreds of vials of entirely fake medication.

Some of the syringes being sold as containing semaglutide (Ozempic) or liraglutide (Saxenda) in fact contain insulin. This has led to some users getting ill enough to require hospitalisation.

To the extent that Novo Nordisk et al. appear unable to manufacture anywhere close to the amount that would match the demand perhaps some of this is unavoidable, if still upsetting. The Faustian bargain that sure, these companies might become dazzlingly rich - which they are, Novo Nordisk is now Europe’s most valuable company with a market cap larger than the GDP of the country it’s situated in, Denmark, not all that surprising when each course of these treatments retail at thousands of dollars in some places - but that it’s the only way to ensure that everyone’s demand is being met has once again not really been working out well so far in this case.

But for any unmet need that’s attributable to explicit or implicit gatekeeping or denying access to this medication to patients who could benefit from it, this example reminds us of what’s at stake when we don’t enable people to safely access medications that could dramatically improve or even save their lives.