China-Singapore Jingwei, July 17th (Wang Yuling) lifts off the clothes on the belly, pulls off the cover, the small needle is inserted into the subcutaneous fat, the hypoglycemic liquid in the tube is slowly pushed into the body, and the small needle pit is faintly visible on the skin .
This is usually the action of insulin injections in diabetic patients, the purpose is to lower blood sugar and maintain normal vital signs.
However, a hypoglycemic drug injected under the skin has turned into a "weight loss artifact" on social platforms.
Some netizens shared, "I lost 7 pounds in the first month. Basically, I lost weight by not eating. After the injections, I didn't feel hungry." I plan to take a round of 5 days, 1.7 (mg), 1.0 (mg) has no effect." It is understood that the starting dose of the drug is 0.25mg, and overdose injection may cause drug side effects.
For people who lose weight, is it reliable to use hypoglycemic drugs as weight loss drugs?
"Slimming artifact" is popular on social networks
"Get up at 6:30 and take a weight loss injection once a week to control appetite." Zhongxin Jingwei saw it on a short video platform, and a blogger shared his experience.
On social platforms, many bloggers recorded the first week, the tenth day, and the first month of losing weight with "Simei", together with a weight chart showing a clear downward trend.
"Slimming needle" and "Simei" point to the same hypoglycemic drug, that is, a new long-acting glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) analog developed by foreign pharmaceutical companies Novo Nordisk - Smeglu Peptide injection (Novotel).
On social platforms, the popularity of Simei is mainly due to its ability to suppress appetite, thereby reducing weight.
"I can't keep my mouth shut at all. Simei can just suppress my appetite. Now I basically eat some watermelon after get off work. The side effect is that my aunt left me because I couldn't eat the staple food." Hold on." One user shared.
Due to the high fever, Simmy ran out of stock in some areas.
Recently, Sino-Singapore Jingwei consulted a pharmaceutical agent as a consumer. The other party said: "If economic conditions permit and you have used Simei, you must stock up! The market is very unstable now. Maybe." At the same time, Sino-Singapore Jingwei called a number of pharmacies in Beijing as consumers, and the other party said that they were out of stock, and the other party said that they were out of stock.
"The stock has been out of stock for a month, and many people are asking, when it will be restored, you can only make frequent calls." A staff member of the Baita Temple Pharmacy in Xicheng District, Beijing said.
The reason for its popularity, on the one hand, is its weight loss effect.
The above-mentioned pharmacist said that the effect varies from person to person, and it is more effective for weight loss with a large base. The use period is 3-6 months, and it will not rebound after that. In the early stage, the subcutaneous fat is thin, and the later stage is visceral fat.
Although the pharmaceutical agent is conservative, on social platforms, it is not a dream to lose ten pounds a month through injections: "There are friends around me who are taking weight loss injections, and the effect is not bad. I lost 18 pounds in two months" "75 days Lost 15 pounds" "Simei lost 7 pounds in the first month of losing weight"... Similar posts abound.
At the same time, according to the introduction of the pharmaceutical agent, there is almost no threshold for the use of Simet. Except for family history of pancreatitis, pregnancy, breastfeeding and pregnancy, it can not be used, and thyroid nodules should be used with caution. Pain to lose weight".
"There are no taboos, you can drink milk tea and other things you want to eat. After using semaglutide, even if you want to eat, you will be full after just one or two bites, so there is no need for taboos." The agent said.
Another reason for Simi's popularity is price.
According to public information, although the actual use of semaglutide is in mg, its specification is ml, and 1 ml of injection contains 1.34 mg of semaglutide.
On December 3, 2021, Simei was included in the "National Basic Medical Insurance, Work Injury Insurance and Maternity Insurance Drug Catalogue (2021)". The price of a 1.5ml semaglutide is 478.8 yuan, and a 3ml si The price of megaglutide is 813.96 yuan.
The actual purchase varies from platform to platform.
Taking an e-commerce platform as an example, the price of 1.5ml is around 575 yuan to 680 yuan.
The price provided by the pharmaceutical agent is lower: "Small 1.5ml 490 yuan, can be used for one month, large 3ml 820 yuan, can be used for two months. All SF Express will send needles by mail, and regular channels can be invoiced."
Calculated on the basis of an average usage period of three to six months, the maximum cost is no more than 3,000 yuan, and some people call it "too cheap".
"If you use it as a hypoglycemic drug, it's not cheap, but it's too cheap to lose weight!"
Side effects not yet clear
Simei is used for weight loss is not "groundless".
According to the official website of the State Food and Drug Administration, Simei was approved in April 2021 for the treatment of type 2 diabetes in adults and to reduce the risk of adverse cardiovascular events in patients with T2DM and cardiovascular disease.
But according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Semet has been approved for weight loss indications.
On December 4, 2020, Novo Nordisk submitted a marketing application for semaglutide 2.4 mg subcutaneously once a week for weight loss to the FDA, which was officially approved on June 4, 2021 for obesity or obesity. Chronic weight management in overweight adults.
According to the U.S. FDA official website, the certification information of Simet shows that this product is used as an adjunctive treatment drug for low-calorie diet and increased physical activity to help adult patients who need long-term weight management.
Based on the results of a clinical trial comparing the 68-week safety and efficacy of once-weekly subcutaneous semaglutide 2.4 mg versus placebo in 1961 obese or overweight adults.
Results showed that intention-to-treat patients who received semaglutide for 68 weeks lost 16.9% of their body weight.
However, it cannot be ignored that Similac is not suitable for the whole population. The applicable population of the drug approved by the US FDA is: first, it is suitable for patients with a body mass index (BMI) ≥ 30kg/m2 in the adult population; second, it is accompanied by at least Adults who are overweight (BMI ≥ 27 kg/m2) with a weight-related disorder (eg, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, or high cholesterol).
Sino-Singapore Jingwei saw in an exchange and sharing group of Simei that many consumers who share related information do not meet the above conditions, and many are not considered "big bases", and they are normal or even lean bodies.
The drug agency also revealed that "a girl who is 1.65 meters tall starts with more than 90 jins, but the injections drop to 84 jins and stop taking the medicine. If you are thinner than her, it is not recommended to use it." The drug purchasing agent told Sino-Singapore Jingwei.
If the height is 1.65 meters, the weight should be 170 catties in line with the drug standard, which belongs to the first class of obesity.
This also means that Semet, known as a "weight loss artifact", is an off-label drug or a non-standard drug.
According to the instructions of semaglutide, it has various adverse drug reactions, including the risk of thyroid cancer, acute pancreatitis, acute gallbladder disease, acute kidney injury and severe allergic reactions.
The Pharmacy also stated that dizziness, thirst, diarrhea, nausea, hiccups, drowsiness, vomiting and other symptoms may occur when using Simepro, which are normal reactions.
Wei Xiaohui, the chief physician of the Endocrinology Department of Zhoushan Branch of Shanghai Ruijin Hospital, also said in an interview with the media that semaglutide is a professional sugar control drug, and it is currently less clinically used for weight loss in people without related diseases.
At present, there is no introduction of simple weight loss in the domestic instructions of semaglutide, and it is generally used for obese patients with type II diabetes, or for diabetic patients who are not effective when using metformin tablets alone.
"If people who are simply obese use these drugs blindly, some serious ones will become dehydrated, because the drugs themselves have side effects, and overreaction will cause nausea, vomiting or diarrhea, and it may also cause pancreatitis, kidney damage, and even thyroid damage. It also has a certain influence." Wei Xiaohui said.
Professor Yuan Qun, former director of the Endocrinology Department of the PLA Air Force General Hospital (Diabetes Research Center), also said in an interview with the media that off-label use is not safe for doctors and patient groups.
The dosage of semaglutide as a hypoglycemic drug is different from that of a weight loss drug, and the usage of different individuals is also inconsistent.
"For any drug to enter China and be approved for new indications, it should first have been used in the real world for a long period of time, and secondly, it must undergo rigorous clinical trials in China. In the absence of approved indications, Even patients who are indeed overweight or obese should not use semaglutide for weight control purposes," said Yuan Qun.
Where does the prescription come from?
In addition to the controversy over drug efficacy and side effects, another issue has also attracted the attention of people in the industry.
At present, Simei is only indicated for type 2 diabetes in China, which is used to lower blood sugar, and has entered the 2021 edition of the medical insurance catalog.
Why can it be circulated on the market as a "weight loss artifact"?
How is the prescription given?
Sino-Singapore Jingwei found that the current market circulation of Simei is mainly divided into three channels. First, to prescribe medicine from medical institutions or pharmacies through doctors, the doctor needs to issue a prescription certificate in the hospital, and the dose injection is formulated according to the doctor; second , upload prescriptions to purchase on third-party platforms such as JD.com and Meituan; third, purchase through purchasing agents.
Regarding the purchasing agent, when Zhongxin Jingwei asked the aforementioned pharmaceutical agent about the source of the drug, the other party said: "It must be regular, this is imported, and there are no fakes." According to the personal information disclosed in his circle of friends, he claimed to be working in a hospital.
For the third-party platform, Sino-Singapore Jingwei consulted as a consumer in a drug flagship store of an e-commerce platform, whether to buy drugs for weight loss. The customer service staff said that many customers used it to lose weight, and the feedback was very good.
In the case that Sino-Singapore Jingwei did not provide a prescription, the other party offered to add WeChat and issue a paper prescription.
After adding the other party's WeChat, he said that after leaving his name, age, and ID card, if he chose type 2 diabetes as the disease, he could issue a paper prescription that was addressed to a provincial capital city hospital.
At the same time, the above-mentioned customer service also stated that if you buy it on a third-party platform, the platform will leave a record of using type 2 diabetes drugs, and you cannot buy commercial insurance in the future.
So, you can place an order on WeChat Pay.
The customer service said, "Drugs all have traceable source code, one box for one code, and the code of each box is connected to the Food and Drug Administration. After you receive the goods, you can scan the source code, the batch number, production You can scan the date."
The pharmacy evaded the supervision of third-party Internet online sales platforms by helping consumers "forge prescriptions", and intended to lead consumers to the WeChat platform for transactions.
Such a method, in the opinion of Professor Deng Yong of the Law Department of Beijing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, is illegal.
Article 21 of the "Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Drug Circulation" clarifies that drug production and distribution enterprises shall not directly sell prescription drugs to the public through mail sales, Internet transactions, etc.
"Selling drugs before prescribing or directly prescribing random prescriptions is a violation of medical operating procedures, and the resulting consequences should be borne by the doctor. Even if there are no adverse consequences, the doctor's practice of medicine in violation of the operating procedures can be suspended or cancelled. Its prescription right, and even revoked its doctor's qualification certificate. In addition, the platform sells prescription drugs without reading a prescription, which can be regarded as illegal sales of drugs or illegal practice of medicine. The punishment for illegal practice of medicine is more than the illegal sale of drugs. It is much heavier, and its civil responsibility is much greater." Deng Yong said in an analysis of Sino-Singapore Jingwei.
(Sino-Singapore Jingwei APP)
(The opinions in this article are for reference only and do not constitute investment advice. Investment is risky, and you need to be cautious when entering the market.)
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