Doctor urges responsible prescribing of weight-loss drugs

(NewsNation) — The stories of success are plentiful. But the stories of despair abound, too.

As the popularity of diabetes drugs Mounjaro, Ozempic and Wegovy for weight loss has skyrocketed, patients have reported severe health problems, some even fatal.

Dr. Michael Feiz, a bariatric surgeon, believes overprescribing may be contributing to the problem.

“It’s important to understand that the medications do a lot of good. These medications aren’t bad. If they’re used improperly, if they’re used irresponsibly, they can be harmful,” Feiz said Wednesday on “CUOMO.” “As we release these medications, we need to become more responsible in the way that they’re used.”

Take the case of Trish Webster, a 56-year-old in Australia who had been using weight loss drugs to slim down for her wedding, “60 Minutes Australia” reported. She had been taking Ozempic and another weight-loss drug, Saxenda, for about five months, was constantly ill and died in January. Her cause of death was acute gastrointestinal illness.

“I have no idea why anyone would prescribe Ozempic and Saxenda at the same time. Those medications are the same thing just with different brand names,” Feiz said of the case.

However, he noted that “I don’t think that there’s necessarily causality. She may have died of other reasons that may have been exacerbated by being on these medications.”

Still, doctors and health experts have been cautioning about the risks of the drugs since they began to explode in popularity, thanks in part to viral videos on TikTok.

The Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday that a new version of Mounjaro, used to treat Type 2 diabetes, can be sold as a weight-loss drug. Zepbound is the latest diabetes drug approved for chronic weight management, joining Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy, a high-dose version of its diabetes treatment Ozempic. Both are weekly injections.

The drugs tirzepatide in Zepbound and Mounjaro and semaglutide in Wegovy and Ozempic work by mimicking hormones that kick in after people eat to regulate appetite and the feeling of fullness. Both imitate a hormone called glucagon-like peptide-1, known as GLP-1. Tirzepatide targets a second hormone, called glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide, or GIP.

“They’re coming up with different formulations, and in fact, Mounjaro has a dual action,” Feiz said.

As the drugs become more popular, so too do knockoff versions that the FDA says are unregulated and potentially dangerous. Doctors including Dave Montgomery have warned to beware of them, and drug makers of the name brand versions have sued to stop the manufacturing of the knockoffs.

“It’s worrisome because a lot of these pharmacies aren’t even aware that such a thing is happening. They’re being defrauded by fraudsters into thinking they’re buying the real deal medications, and it’s only later that they find out,” Feiz said. “Well, if people are going to such lengths to defraud pharmacists, what makes us believe that the medication or anything inside the medication is safe?”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.