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What RFK Jr. Has Said About Ozempic the Popular Weight Loss Drug
President-elect Donald Trump‘s nominee for Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has criticized the reliance on the weight-loss drug Ozempic, raising concerns about government funding for it and advocating for addressing the root causes of obesity in America instead.
Ozempic and other glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor analogs, such as Wegovy, are drugs that mimic fullness hormone GLP-1 and have been shown to reduce appetite, slow digestion, help stabilize blood sugar levels and impact metabolism. They can be prescribed for type 2 diabetes and obesity. Kennedy Jr. has been critical of the drug as a weight loss method, saying that it focuses on symptoms of obesity rather than fixing what he classifies as root problems, such as food systems and exercise.
Instead of health insurance paying for the drug, Kennedy Jr. said during a late-September town hall in Philadelphia: “If a doctor’s patient has diabetes or obesity, the doctor ought to be able to say, I’m going to recommend gym membership, and I’m going to recommend good food, and Medicaid ought to be able to finance those things the same as they would Ozempic.”
RFK Jr.’s Reforms Should Be Embraced by Doctors: Stanford Medical Professor
Jay Bhattacharya, a professor at Stanford University Medical School, says that American doctors should embrace the reform agenda of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Donald Trump’s controversial pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services in the next presidential administration.
In an article for UnHerd, a nonpartisan website that aims to “test and retest assumptions, without fear or favor,” Bhattacharya wrote that critics of Kennedy focus too much on his belief in conspiracy theories. They fail to recognize his vows to bring together top experts to end the United States’ chronic disease epidemic and clean up perceived corruption in the medical and pharmaceutical industries.
Following the decision by the president-elect, many medical professionals were left aghast that a man who has previously been accused of amplifying conspiracy theories — most notably about the COVID-19 vaccine — could potentially be in charge of the health of 350 million Americans from January if he is confirmed by the Senate. Newsweek has emailed Bhattacharya and Kennedy’s press contact for additional comment.
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U.S. Pharma Is Largely Immune From ‘MAHA’ Impact: Wolfe
Wolfe Research argues that despite a near-term impact, large-cap U.S. pharma stocks are largely immune from the anti-chronic disease movement “Make America Healthy Again,” championed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary.
In a research note on Thursday, Wolfe analyst Alexandria Hammond projected a positive outlook for Pharma and Large-Cap Biotech stocks, citing an optimistic tone on the sector’s long-term growth drivers.
Hammond’s views came as Trump nominated RFK Jr., a notable vaccine critic, as his pick for the HHS, an agency overseeing major healthcare regulators, such as the The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which are central to big pharma’s prospects.
“While we recognize ‘Make America Healthy Again’ dynamics could act as near-term headwind, we think our homegrown US Pharma (and our top picks) will assuredly block & tackle these overhangs,” Hammond wrote.
U.S. Confirms First Case of More Aggressive Strain of Mpox
U.S. confirms first case of more aggressive strain of mpox. The U.S. on Saturday reported its first case of a more aggressive strain of mpox: an individual in California who had recently traveled from eastern Africa. The case was confirmed by the California Department of Public Health and reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The person was treated in San Mateo County based on their travel history and symptoms and is now isolating at home and recovering, the state’s health department said in a press release.
Public health workers are contacting people who had close contact with the patient, “but there is no concern or evidence” that the strain is currently spreading in California or the U.S., the statement said. The U.S. is the sixth country outside of Africa to have detected the strain, according to the CDC, which can cause more severe disease than the version of the virus that spread widely in 2022.
It’s unclear what transmission pathways might look like in the U.S., but some experts anticipate that clade I could spread among the same sexual networks as in 2022. “I do expect that we will see cases,” said Dr. Marc Siegel, an associate professor of medicine at the George Washington School of Medicine and Health Sciences. “I think it will more likely be in the same population that was more at risk in the 2022-2023 outbreak. For the general population, I think this poses very little risk.”
