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| Wednesday October 25, 2023 |
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With so much fuss about weight-loss wonder drug Ozempic, Street Talk thought it would be a good idea to talk to someone actually taking it. |
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This wasn’t a difficult task. As one person quipped: “Half of the wives in the Eastern Suburbs are on it.” (Street Talk sidebar: And two-thirds of the husbands ought to be). |
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We spoke to an early Ozempic adopter who is taking it to treat their type 2 diabetes and so far losing a whopping 20kg. They tried everything to get their illness under control and said the drug was a “last resort”. |
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“When you’re on it, you can’t go back to eating the way you did before,” they said, describing the loss of desire for fatty or sugary foods like ice cream and chocolate. And if they over-ate, they’d feel sick, helping to kick the cravings. |
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Ozempic is designed to improve blood sugar levels in type-2 diabetics, but people have flocked to it for weight loss. Morgan Stanley estimates 24 million people, or 7 per cent of the US population, will be taking anti-obesity medication by 2035. |
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While our trailblazer threw around words like “love” and “transformational”, they cautioned it’s not a fix-all, particularly for those with other underlying health issues. They’re also concerned about whether it’s a sustainable option and fretted about unknown long-termside effects, the real possibility that they won’t be able to come off it (or risk putting the weight back on) and never being able to enjoy the foods they love. |
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The rapid rise of Ozempic has investors worried about its potential follow-on effect on everything from blue-chip healthcare names to fast-food retailers, grocers, health insurers, hospitals and plus-sized fashion retailers etc…the list goes on. Already, an Ozempic short-selling wave has hit names like sleep apnoea specialist ResMed and blood giant CSL. |
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While the jury is still out, investors are already positioning. Asked about Ozempic on a webinar last week, Regal’s Phil King described weight-loss pills as “one of the largest game changers we’ve seen in healthcare” and said he’s “choosing to be very cautious”. |
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“I think there are repercussions that will reverberate through many stocks for many years to come.” |
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Certainly food for thought. |
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| Emma Rapaport Co-editor, Street Talk |
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Mathieson piles heat on Endeavour chairman to step down, Carrie LaFrenz and Simon Evans write.The market for catastrophe bonds, one of this year’s best-performing debt classes, is about to get a significant boost from the World Bank, Bloomberg reports.The UK plans to scrap a cap on bankers’ bonuses that was inherited from the EU as part of its post-Brexit push to boost the City of London, The Financial Timesreports. |
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Harvest Hotels’ eight pubs are expected to make about $70 million revenue this financial year, up from $59 million in the 2023 financial year. Nearly half of this comes from the bar and kitchen, followed by gaming and bottle shops. |
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