Poonam Sharma
Brad Roberts was once touted as the poster child for the magic weight-loss shot, Ozempic. A 70 kg weight loss was a dream, a miracle in a syringe, modern science. Roberts, the golden boy of Big Pharma, was hailed as the epitome of health, losing weight effortlessly as the world looked on in wonder. The pill, hailed as the answer to obesity, swept the globe off its feet, endorsed by influencers, celebrities, and the media. It was marketed as the solution to contemporary vanity — a rapid solution for the desperate to shed pounds.
But like most miracles, there was a sinister underside to the shining promises.
Brad Roberts didn’t merely lose weight; he lost his life. After being injected with Ozempic, Roberts started to have extreme neurological side effects. His vision, hearing, memory, and speech all began to slowly decline. What had started as a miracle drug became a horror story. Bedridden and unable to speak now, Roberts is a shattered man, clinging to life. His family is now suing Novo Nordisk, the drug giant behind Ozempic, for $35.8 million in damages. Yet, no amount of dollars can put his health back to what it used to be, nor erase the irreparable harm brought by a drug released on the market with little thought to its long-term consequences.
Roberts’ case is not unique. Stories of similar adverse effects are being reported, with many questioning Ozempic’s safety. Released aggressively with promises of easy weight loss, Ozempic is now a billion-dollar market. Influencers, celebrities, and even doctors have evangelized the drug as a miracle, but what the public did not know was that the real cost of the “miracle” might be more than money — it might be one’s health, one’s dignity, and even one’s life.
Novo Nordisk, which reaped billions from Ozempic, appears to have forgotten an important part of healthcare: patient safety. Hope was sold to the public in the form of a medication with no concern for its possible ramifications. The enormous marketing juggernaut behind Ozempic, ranging from glowing media reports to endorsements by celebrities, created an image of a magic bullet while conveniently omitting the risks.
This is not simply an accident. This is a systemic problem — a clear indication of how biotech today has moved from a focus on health to a focus on profits. Patients are being used as guinea pigs, their health being compromised in the interest of money.
As the law war over Ozempic’s side effects gathers steam, the questions are getting louder: How much is Big Pharma willing to pay in the name of profit? And how long before the public finally gets that the “miracle” shot was an illusion?
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