Ireland is ranking one disease above another by subsidising Ozempic for diabetes patients but not for those with Obesity.

That’s according to the HSE’s Clinical Lead for Obesity Prof Donal O’Shea who is calling for the drug to be made available to obesity patients through the Drugs Payment Scheme.

Ozempic contains the active ingredient semaglutide and is prescribed to patients with type 2 diabetes.

The company that produces it also makes Wegovy, which contains higher doses of semaglutide and is designed for weight loss.

The drugs are currently only covered for diabetes patients.

Prof Donal O'Shea told Newstalk Breakfast that the system is placing the needs of one group of patients above the other.

“It's covered for diabetes but not for obesity and that kind of ranks one disease as more deserving if you like, than another disease, which I have problems with,” he said.

“We finally now have treatments that are helping to treat obesity and they need to become more widely available in the years ahead.

“That is something the HSE is well aware of.

“The World Health Organisation is drawing up guidelines as we speak for the use of these at a global level because access and affordability are the major challenges for obesity management in the decades ahead.”

Consultant endocrinologist Professor Donal O'Shea is seen at a press conference in Dublin in 2015. Picture by: Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland

Prof O’Shea said obesity patients are currently paying around €140 a month to access the drugs.

“The majority of people look at that, and it is an indefinite treatment, so you're talking, you know, the bones of €1,500 a year,” he said.

“That's not something many people can add to their list of expenditure.”

Obesity

Prof O’Shea said many people in Ireland still discriminate against obese people, even if things have improved slightly in recent years.

“I would say 10 or 15 years ago, 99.5% of people were going. ‘Well, it's just eat less, move more and it's their fault – take personal responsibility,’” he said.

“I think now we've moved to, about 90% of people still think that way and 10% are buying into obesity as a genetic predisposition.

“So it's in your family history and then we have an environment that's driving a pattern of consumption and sedentary behaviour.”

'Pandemic'

The HSE obesity lead said we need to do more to tackle the marketing of high-sugar and unhealthy foods.

“The snake in the petrol station as you go to pay is products that are placed at your eye level in packaging designed to be attractive to your brain – whether you're three or 33,” he said.

“It's just pervasive and we shouldn't really allow that to happen in the middle of an obesity pandemic that's driving disease that is filling our hospital emergency departments.”

He said he will be pushing for Ozempic to be subsidised for obesity patients in the coming year – and noted that even more effective treatments are expected to be rolled out in the coming years.

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