Aimee Donnellan's Off the Scales charts the rise of Ozempic and GLP-1 drugs

In her first book, Off the Scales, Reuters journalist Aimee Donnellan examines the social and scientific upheaval prompted by GLP-1 weight-loss drugs such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro. Donnellan frames the drugs’ emergence against entrenched judgments about body size and beauty norms, citing examples such as a 2022 Times column by Matthew Parris that argued for fat shaming.

She notes that while weekly injections can be revolutionary for people with diabetes or obesity, others who are neither obese nor diabetic are using the drugs to meet aesthetic pressures; some commentators have likened the injections to “an eating disorder in a pen”. The book opens with a case study of “Sarah”, a 34-year-old marketing executive who, after six months on Ozempic and losing five stone (32kg), found her workplace status had changed.

Donnellan traces the drugs’ scientific backstory — including the work of Svetlana Mojsov on a synthetic form of the hormone GLP-1 and an anecdotal role for the Gila monster — and describes how Novo Nordisk developed semaglutide, a once-weekly treatment for diabetes that trials showed could also produce up to 20% body-weight loss.

Donnellan records celebrity attention, including Oprah Winfrey’s public remarks, and notes that Novo Nordisk’s market value has grown substantially, the review says, to exceed the GDP of Norway.

Key Topics

Health, Ozempic, Semaglutide, Novo Nordisk, Aimee Donnellan, Obesity