Pharmaceutical giants are doing well. Very well even. At Novo Nordisk, we think big. This Danish company has taken the formula of Ozempic, this drug created to fight diabetes and misused by the rich and stars to ward off obesity. She reconfigured it into a formula intended to make short work of excess weight.
This new product, Wegovy, enriches its shareholders. Novo Nordisk’s market capitalization is at the top of the charts: more than $500 billion.
Novo Nordisk says Wegovy should be available to Canadians this spring. His drug is already approved by the government agency Health Canada. Its high demand, almost everywhere, had made it impossible to market it earlier in the land of maples.
One in two adults in the United States is obese. One in four in Canada. In France, it would be one in five. Around the globe, one in eight humans is burdened by obesity. Among young people, the obesity rate is increasing everywhere.
All this could deteriorate even further, as a part of humanity moves less and less, eats more and more poorly and becomes infinitely poorer.
Eating too much sugar and too much salt and stuffing yourself with products that make you gain weight are one of the markers of poverty. And poverty, as you have understood, is a bitter pill more difficult to swallow than a Wegovy tablet.
Take France, the country of gastronomy. Paris is on the eve of hosting, with the Summer Olympic Games, the largest sporting event in the world: 206 countries united. At the same time, France is seeing an unprecedented craze for junk food. It is now one of the biggest markets for fast food restaurants. Channels of the genre are growing there.
According to a survey commissioned by a ministry of the French Republic, only 66% of 15 to 24 year olds regularly eat fruits and vegetables. In this age category, 60% eat in a fast food restaurant at least once a month. One in five young French people think they see a cucumber or an eggplant when they are presented with a zucchini.
What would such a poll give on this side of the Atlantic? A recent study shows that nearly 60% of processed products sold on our grocery shelves contain too much salt, too much sugar, too much fat, according to thresholds established by Health Canada. And afterwards, we are surprised that the peasants are worried about their country. We have not finished seeing farmers rushing to the point, as was the case in France, but also, in recent days, in Rimouski and La Malbaie. The hospitals are full, but the pockets of those who make us eat well are empty. Find the mistake.
At the Paris Olympic Games, spectators around the world will be able to see, once again, that the Americans will collect the greatest number of medals. Isn’t it unusual that one of the countries with the least fit population wins the most Olympic titles?
The sect of athletes has come to live in a world apart, while making us believe that we must join them to hope to do well. Now a little pill from Wegovy shows up and promises paradise without forcing it too much, without even having to change society.
Between the launch of his rockets which will burst into the atmosphere to continue to pollute it, Elon Musk is one of the first to welcome the existence of Wegovy. So far, judging by the crazy multi-billionaire’s latest releases, Wegovy has apparently had no effect in curbing his megalomania.
Also delighted by this novelty, star host Oprah Winfrey left the board of directors of Weight Watchers, a company that has promoted diets for decades. The title of Weight Watchers, also listed on the stock exchange, found itself nosediving. There is a lot of play around obesity.
Using Wegovy should cost around $5,000 per person per year, I read somewhere. So much the better if it helps some. I’m not a doctor to judge that. But no one will make me believe that this public health problem of obesity can be resolved globally with such a costly headlong rush.
Our bodies have become burdens that weigh heavily on our societies stuffed with ultra-processed foods. So much so that, it seems, we need smart watches to encourage us to simply walk, that is to say, to move even a little.
An advertisement from an automobile brand these days extols the merits of an electric vehicle ideal, it seems, for fetching your coffee. Who would have thought that one day you would have to rely on such an accessory to buy yourself a coffee? Taking your own two feet and walking is apparently so outdated…
Of course, like everyone else, you would like to go out, get some fresh air, walk, breathe. But you don’t have much time. And then soon, it will be too hot… If you also have children, everyone knows that they no longer want to play outside. Playing outside seems like a chore to them. They prefer video games. This also gives you an excuse to buy them new ones. And so as not to go out more than them. What kind of parents would you be if you left your children alone to hang around at home? You might as well do like them.
We love fiction more than ever. Rather than straining our energy, we prefer to collapse it on a sofa. An entire society is on the verge of forgetting that reality always has more imagination than imagination.
From the comfort of your living room, there’s no need to lift a finger. Between two visits to social networks, you can very well deplore that Palestinians are starving. And your routine continues.
With the Ozempic and the Olympics coming up, why after all put yourself to death?