Now KIDS are going to get Ozempic! NHS-affiliated trial will give dozens of fat children as young as SIX the powerful slimming jabs


By John Ely Senior Health Reporter For Mailonline

12:25 01 Apr 2024, updated 12:31 01 Apr 2024



Children as young as six will get powerful slimming jabs in a new trial, MailOnline can reveal today. 

Weight loss injection semaglutide, branded as Ozempic and Wegovy, has already been rolled out for adults.

But health chiefs have, so far, held back from doling out the jabs to tackle Britain’s bulging child obesity crisis. 

The two-and-a-half-year trial, sponsored by the jab’s maker, Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, could change that.

This is despite experts raising concerns about the potential effects of doling out the brain-hacking drugs to children.  

Drugs like Ozempic help people lose weight by mimicking a hormone that tricks them into feeling full
Researchers outlined several unintended detrimental consequences that could arise in children who take weight-loss drugs

Slimming jabs have been linked to cancer, gallstones and suicidal thoughts, though exact long-term effects remain a mystery since they are relatively new. 

Officials also recommend they are taken for life, otherwise users may simply pile the pounds back on.

Critics have also said such a move, while tackling the problem of childhood obesity, fails to address the drivers which are making British children fat in the first place.

More than 200 children will be recruited as part of the global study, which will involve four NHS hospitals in Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds and Liverpool.

One arm of the trial will consist of children aged between six and 12.

READ MORE: The 16 celebs CONFIRMED to be on Ozempic… as drug makers urge stars to stop hogging it for ‘vanity’ reasons 

The second will involve kids up to 17, who have gone through the earliest stages of puberty. 

Children given semaglutide will also need to be obese or have at least one weight-related health issue, such as type 2 diabetes or high blood pressure. 

Kids taking part will also have to sign up to a dieting and exercise regime. 

Study documents describe this as a ‘reduced-calorie diet and increased physical activity’ but doesn’t offer any more details. 

Children who take part will be randomly assigned either semaglutide or a dummy-drug, a placebo.

Those taking semaglutide will start on 0.25mg for four weeks, before increasing to 0.5mg, 1mg and 1.7mg. Dosage will cap at 2.4mg. 

Children will have their weight and BMI tracked throughout the course of the study, up until two years after they first take the drug.

Then Novo Nordisk scientists will compare the weight-loss results for children who took semaglutide alongside diet and exercise to those in the placebo group.

They will also record any adverse health events in the children. 

The study is estimated to close in November next year.

A similar trial in adults showed volunteers taking the drug could lose 15 per cent of their weight, compared to just 2.5 per cent in the placebo group.

That Novo Nordisk study, published in 2021, was one of those instrumental in seeing Wegovy, and its sister drug Ozempic, become a household name. 

Since then, supplies of the drug have been snapped up, including by celebs.

Even Ozempic stock, another semaglutide drug but one which is designed to help diabetics control their blood sugar, has ran low due to soaring demand. 

Children can get technically already get semaglutide in the UK, but it isn’t routinely available on the NHS.

NHS clinicians can, in theory, give it to kids because the drug is already approved for use in adults, a practice standard for numerous medications. 

Wegovy and Ozempic work by triggering the body to produce a hormone called GLP-1 that is released naturally from the intestines after meals
Experts have warned that Wegovy is not a ‘magic pill’. Trials have shown that users can rapidly pile pounds back on once they stop taking it, and it can trigger a side-effects including nausea, constipation and diarrhoea

However, this is typically only through dedicated specialist weight management services for children and only for severe cases.

Such prescriptions aren’t standard and can vary based on an individual clinician’s discretion and local NHS trust policies. 

Children could also potentially be prescribed the drugs privately under similar mechanisms. 

The US and the EU have already approved the drug for use in fat children aged 12 and above in limited circumstances. 

However, the NHS medications watchdog The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) said it was unable to make a recommendation regarding Wegovy in children in June, citing a lacking of evidence from Novo Nordisk. 

READ MORE: Be warned of the ‘Ozempic wall’! Experts say little-known issue will affect EVERYONE on miracle slimming jabs – and it can kick in after just six weeks 

Appearing on the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, earlier this month 55-year-old  American comedian and actor Tracy Morgan revealed he eventually ‘out-ate’ Ozempic and gained 40 pounds (18kg)

The currently recruiting trial could form part of the evidence NICE needs to make an official recommendation for British children. 

While Novo Nordisk, as well as rival Eli Lilly with its similar weight loss jab Mounjaro, are testing their jabs on children as young as six, no health authority has yet recommended the use of the drugs in children this young. 

Clinical trials of semaglutide and children have been held in the UK before.

But these have been in adolescents, and mostly among those with existing weight-related health problems such as type 2 diabetes. 

Semaglutide works by triggering hormones in the brain which trick the body into slowing digestion and keeping the stomach full, reducing appetite, and consequently, the amount people eat. 

While hailed as a ‘gamechanger’ in the fight against bulging waistlines, the jabs have notable downsides. 

Patients have to take the jabs for life or see the pounds they lost pile back, doctors have warned.

Some rival pharma companies have also labelled the jabs as indiscriminate drugs as people not only lose weight on them but muscle mass as well. 

Additionally, like any medication, they can have side effects that vary in both frequency and severity.

These include nausea, constipation and diarrhoea, fatigue, stomach pain, headaches and dizziness.

Weirder and much rarer side effects, like hair loss, have also been reported. 

A Novo Nordisk spokesperson said: ‘Novo Nordisk is focused on providing further innovation and understanding of childhood obesity through research and development but also through long-term partnerships with the obesity community and obesity organisations to make obesity a healthcare priority.’

The Danish pharma giant is enjoying a massive boom in profits thanks to the huge hunger for its weight loss jab.

Earlier this year it revealed it was making £32million per day, as countries grappling with the financial cost of flab grapple to get their hands on the jabs. 

A UK study found that people who used Wegovy experienced rapid weight loss, dropping 18 per cent of their weight over 68 weeks. They regained two-thirds of that weight, or 12 per cent of their original body weight in the year after dropping the weekly injections. Experts says the drug needs to be used over a lifetime to keep off the pounds
Over a million children had their height and weight measured under the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP). Nationally, the rate among children in Year 6 stands at over a third, despite having fallen slightly since Covid began
Among Year 6 pupils, national obesity fell from 23.4 per cent in 2021/22 to 22.7 per cent. Meanwhile, the proportion of children deemed either overweight or obese also dipped, from 37.8 per cent to 36.6. Both measures are above pre-pandemic levels

NHS England said while the trial is being held at health service facilities, the study was not an NHS trial. 

The latest childhood obesity data for England shows one in 10 children are too fat by the time they start primary school, rising to about one in four among Year 6. 

Obesity also takes a massive financial toll in the UK, with the resulting health consequences on loss working years, care costs, and price of NHS treatment costing the economy an estimated £100billion per year. 

Experts have pointed to a lack of exercise, and poor diets high in ultra-processed food, as being key drivers in the UK’s childhood obesity epidemic.

Critics have repeatedly called for unhealthy foods to be slapped with harsh warning labels and a restrictions to be imposed on junk food advertising to help families make healthy choices. 

TV star and author Dr Chris van Tulleken is among those who have called for the Government to focus on prevention rather than new drugs to tackle the nation’s growing waistlines. 

Semaglutide has been nicknamed Hollywood’s ‘worst kept secret’ after bursting onto the scene, with fans including Elon Musk and Jeremy Clarkson. 

Even Kim Kardashian was rumoured to have used it to rapidly lose 16lbs (7.3kg) to fit into Marilyn Monroe’s iconic ‘Happy Birthday Mr President’ dress at the 2022 Met Gala. 

But it’s not working for all the starts who are opting to take it. 

Appearing on the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon earlier this month, 55-year-old American comedian and actor Tracy Morgan revealed he ‘out-ate’ Ozempic and gained 40 pounds (18kg) while taking it. 

Last year, TikTok star Remi Bader admitted that stopping Ozempic made her binge eating get ‘so much worse’.

She said she was prescribed it because she was pre-diabetic and insulin-resistant and gaining weight.

‘They said I need this. And I had a lot of mixed feelings,’ she said. ‘Because then… a few months later, got into the bad bingeing and went off it.’

She added: ‘I saw a doctor, and they were like, “It’s 100 per cent because you went on Ozempic”. 

Reference

Denial of responsibility! Elite News is an automatic aggregator of Global media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, and all materials to their authors. For any complaint, please reach us at – [email protected]. We will take necessary action within 24 hours.
DMCA compliant image

Leave a comment