The social stigma in Europe exists, because these drugs are in limited supply. So, if a person who does not really need them is using them, the people who actually need them to stay alive might have difficulty accessing them.

that's actually not true, Mounjaro and Wegovy are pretty much meant for weight loss and there is no competition over them for people with diabetes

Mounjaro is the tirzepatide equivalent to Ozempic (semaglutide) in that it’s prescribed for type 2 diabetes. Wegovy (semaglutide) and Zepbound (tirzepatide) are prescribed for obesity. Otherwise you’re spot on.

There is until they're packaged because they're the same drug. Only the label is different.

you can just order them to your home on any of the websites selling GLP-1. Stop the propaganda inferring that the public healthcare is bad and doesn't allow people to get their medicine.

In Spain you can't. You need to be authorised by a doctor to buy those drugs.

This is also true in the US -- these are prescription drugs.

This is not exactly correct. The fda approved named items require a prescription. However from the shortage years ago compounding pharmacies were allowed to sell alternative versions. Basically they add a B vitamin to the normal drug and boom non prescription GLP1.

With this one simple trick Denmarks GDP goes down by multiple % points.

> non prescription GLP1.

Compounding a drug doesn't suddenly make it non-prescription. You still need one for them.

It just lets you buy stuff where the raw API is made in China by some random pharma lab instead of from Novo or Lilly.

> because these drugs are in limited supply

That's the first time I hear about this. A close friend of mine uses it and she just goes to the pharmacy. Never heard about any problems with supply.

Here's a short history of the official shortage statuses for various GLP1s from the FDA:

https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-safety-and-availability/fda-c...

Currently, only Liraglutide is officially in shortage. Although others have been in shortage in the last couple years.

this is the remains of the moral outrage that was online and in the media a few years ago when ozympic was first mediatised

Where is that? I'm pretty sure in France you can't just walk into a pharmacy and buy it, you need a prescription.

Yes, she has a prescription. I did not think it was relevant to the supply.

I think it's somewhat related. The French social security site has a page asking phamacists to make sure the prescriptions are correct, in order to guarantee availability to people who actually need this [0].

This sounds pretty much like the supply is somewhat limited for whatever reason.

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[0] https://www.ameli.fr/pharmacien/actualites/antidiabetiques-a...

That is nearly a year old now.

There were previously supply issues with these drugs throughout Europe, but those were mostly resolved by the end of 2024.

By mid-2025, it was (and still is) possible to easily get all of the medicines for any of the approved uses, including weight loss and diabetes.

Honestly it’s just because people who use them are considered to be weak minded and lazy. That’s all, the supply doesn’t matter.

We have been able to diet for millions of years, our body is pretty good at it, but some people NEED that to diet. Yeah, just like some people can’t be put to work. Everyone know that kind of people who are a burden on society and themselves.

It just happens that this drug is more available in the USA, but with the same availability in Europe, I bet there would be around the same percentage of user.

You also forget it is expensive and in many cases not taking charge by the respective healthcare autority of the country, so it leads to less consumption.

It is for sure expensive (~300€ / month) but from my understanding nothing like the prices you see in the US (+2'000 $)

I've known several users of GLP1's. None ever paid more than $600/mo for them once the "patient assistance" programs started, and even in the very earliest days the prices I heard were never more than about $1100 if paid in cash.

So, while they are very expensive, your understanding is not reflective of the situation on the ground.

Yeah, Zepbound is $499 now. Out of reach of many, but an improvement from $549 last year.

The terms and conditions are confusing. You can only use the half-off coupon they provide if you have prescription drug insurance. Even if insurance doesn't cover it, they still require the processing pharmacy to check that you have some sort of valid insurance and only process the coupon if so. If you fall into that bucket, it's $1200 or something. (Had to pay that amount one month because Amazon Pharmacy was very confused about my gender marker changing on my insurance. Many, many support tickets later, and it got fixed.)

There is also some price difference between the autoinjector and the single-use vial + provide your own needle and syringe. I haven't looked into that because it's the same with the coupon, but if you can't get the coupon to work, it's an option to just inject it yourself. Honestly I prefer not using the autoinjectors (I inject other medications), but it's the path of least resistance.

Finally, the coupon claims it only works for 7 fills, but I've been taking the medication for a couple years and all my fills have been covered. I don't really understand it. I have a feeling that I'm the only person in the world that read the fine print, including the pharmacies and manufacturer :/

Wegovy tablets are $299 now.

that's good to hear, the sticker prices are insane

Wtf, is that just for original trademark GLP? Generics cost like <$30/mo in Russia.

And its for life. Unless you are doing it for Instagram only... "The Insta Diet" as it is called also.. When the diet finishes, you will gain the fat instantly also (just as with any diet obviously).

It's $66CAD including taxes where I am after insurance. I save 3-4x that on less groceries.

There may be, but I haven't seen anyone lose significant weight either since this started.

In Austria I have noticed a massive social stigma. I think that's embarrassing and backwards. As someone who is very athletic and takes nothing extraordinary besides creatine and whey protein I fully support anyone who wants to become healthier, with or without medication.

In my experience this is not healthy. People who had problems with weight are very quickly losing excess weight and displaying a range of symptoms related to that including sunken and starved looking faces and significant loss of lean muscle mass. Changes made to the face with rapid weight loss may become permanent and especially for older people the loss of lean muscle mass can become a major health problem. Sudden extreme changes in body composition are often neither healthy nor stable.

There might be health problems associated with these drugs but they need to be compared to the next best option. I think for a lot of people on these drugs the next best option is continuing the status quo which has a lot of negative health outcomes as well.

Or, you know, just less obese people

Many of my not obese friends started using it out of pure laziness. But in general I believe that obese factor too :)

We have quite a few obese people. Not as many as the US, but not few either.

> France [...] 2020 [...] excess weight was 47.3%, with 17% of subjects being obese

https://presse.inserm.fr/en/obesite-et-surpoids-pres-dun-fra...

I read this online, I don't know where it was, so I can't give a source, it probably was on twitter:

"People really want these things - exercise, weight - to be important moral objectives for others, when they're not that important in the grand scheme of things. Now you'll just have to find another easy visual marker for ranking people by moral superiority."

I would imagine we'll see a greater emphasis on muscularity. Already 'skinny fat' has long been a pejorative for slim people that hadn't 'earned' it (whatever 'it' is). Like just about everything, supply and demand will determine desirability. In a world where no-one is overweight being slim is no longer a desirable differentiator.