It Is Hard To Be Sure That On-Line Prescription Providers Are A Good Thing For The Health System.

In the last few months this sort of practice seems to be growing and Eucalyptus seems to be a flag-bearer at present.:

A typical recent article talking about the trend goes like this, maybe suggesting a peak!

The weight loss cycle: out with Jenny Craig, in with Ozempic

Depending who you ask, Ozempic is “phenomenal” for patients or a “dangerous” way of losing weight. Either way, its arrival heralds a new model of medicine.

Nick Bonyhady Technology writer

Jul 21, 2023 – 1.59pm

In 1983, a Melbourne couple with a burgeoning business took out a full-page ad in The Age to spruik the opening of their nine weight loss centres across the city. “This is the last weight loss program you will ever need to go on,” wrote the business founded by Jenny Craig and her husband, Sidney. “No injections, drugs and pills.”

Over the decades, millions of overweight people trusted Craig’s promises as they paid to weigh in, pick up meals and slim down at what became more than 700 stores in four countries. But last month, after a string of owners, Jenny Craig Weight Loss Centres Australia hit the end of the road. The demise of its US parent company had pushed it into administration, and no buyer was willing to acquire the whole business.

Eucalyptus, a four-year-old start-up that sells the buzzy weight loss drug Ozempic, bought Jenny Craig’s mailing list and web address but not its name. It has not said what it plans to do with the storied business, but the most obvious course would be to use it to start selling the prescription medication. Craig’s promise of “no injections” could, along with the physical centres, be lost.

Ozempic is the drug of the moment, though it is not officially recommended for weight loss. The weekly injection, which is designed to be a treatment for diabetes, works by mimicking hormones that tell the body it is full. One trial found patients lost an average of 15 per cent of their body weight over 68 weeks. For the last year, its active compound called Semaglutide has been in high demand as a weight loss treatment, spruiked by celebrities including billionaire Tesla and Twitter boss Elon Musk.

With shortages of the drug easing and mainstream businesses like Eucalyptus moving to cash in, the Ozempic fad heralds the arrival of a more American model of care. Patients are being driven to the drug – which can have serious side effects – through marketing and media, rather than letting their doctor discern the right treatment for their symptoms.

In doctors’ waiting rooms, hairdressers and gyms around Australia, Ozempic is the word.

Former independent MP and general practitioner Professor Kerryn Phelps, who works in Sydney’s inner east, said her colleagues had patients who wanted Ozempic for weight loss.

“Word got around on social media last year that this could fast-track weight loss, and this led to an unanticipated demand,” Phelps says. Shortages have resulted.

More here:

https://www.afr.com/life-and-luxury/health-and-wellness/the-weight-loss-cycle-out-with-jenny-craig-in-with-ozempic-20230719-p5dpkg

My interest is in the Eucalyptus corporate and its associated tele-health brands.

There are four key brands under the Eucalyptus banner covering mostly sexual and weight issues, with services mostly delivered via audio based tele-health.

I have had a close look at many of the offerings and I am left with the feeling most consults are really a sales channel for in-demand / embarrassing services.

The latest push on weight loss is driven by the new agent Ozempic which seems to be the weekly injection everyone wants!

The issue is just how such drugs are made available and is the availability of a few drugs that are in ‘social’ demand a reason to move from traditional consultation to the on-line less contact model?

I think not and in normal (not pandemic!) situations actually seeing the patient before prescribing is a pretty good plan!

I really see the hand of financial greed overwhelming patient safety with these services…

What do others think remembering these services are by no means free or bulk-billed!

David.