New Delhi: Social media for the past few years has been rampant with before-after pictures of celebrities having undergone Ozempic treatment, where they appear to have lost immense weight due to the drug along with other such gimmicks that advertise the weight loss benefits of the diabetes drug, Ozempic. Famous talk show host Oprah Winfrey and singer Kelly Clarkson along with many other celebrities have attested to using weight loss drugs as part of their fitness regimen. The drastic weight loss or “zero” figures of Hollywood actors have been speculatively attributed to weight-loss injectable drugs such as Ozempic and have consequently garnered great popularity around the medication and a seismic surge in demand.

Marketing strategies for greater use of Ozempic also include plus-size activists and influencers being asked to promote the weight loss benefits of Ozempic as part of an industry-wide strategy to market injectable weight-loss medication. Novo Nordisk along with several pharmaceutical companies in the business have created marketing strategies that address body-positive communities and target them for creating promotional content that advertise Ozempic as a weight loss drug. The company has also heavily funded projects that promote discussions on topics of obesity and being overweight such as the sponsoring of two documentary projects centred on weight stigma: the feature “Embodied” and the docuseries “Thick Skin”.

Internet users all around the world have witnessed a sharp uptick in the ads and posts related to weight-loss injectable drugs that appear on their feeds. In a 2023 article published by NBC News, it was noticed that more than 4000 ads for Ozempic-style drugs were found running on Facebook and Instagram. This surge in ads being floated across social media platforms is being kickstarted by online pharmacies, medical spas, and diet clinics, as a means to capitalize on the increasing interest in the weight-loss injectable drugs market.

Global Obesity Levels in India

Developing nations like India are at a high risk of an obesity crisis and its consequences due to factors such as consumption of energy-dense food (i.e. unhealthy food habits), sedentary lifestyle, lack of health care services, and financial support. Ranking third in the list of top 10 obese nations in the world, India is entering a nationwide crisis of obesity at a rapid pace.

In a study/survey conducted by NCD Risk Factor Collaboration, close to 80 million individuals in India are identified as obese, and one-eighth of them belong to the age group of 5-19. Lancet reports show some startling facts, a recorded 30 million adults in India are living with obesity or are overweight, almost 70% of the urban population is obese and 62 million Indians with diabetic issues exhibit obesity-related characteristics such as excess body fat, abdominal adiposity (abdominal obesity), and fat deposition in ectopic sites.

According to the ICMR-INDIAB study in 2015, the prevalence rate of obesity and central obesity varies from 11.8% to 31.3% and 16.9%-36.3% respectively. In India, abdominal obesity is one of the major risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVDs). Various studies have shown that the prevalence of obesity among women was significantly higher as compared to men. Obesity is one of the main medical and financial burdens for the government. This problem of obesity can be preventable by........

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