Jens Juul Holst is one of the discoverers of GLP-1, the hormone on whose effect the success of the weight loss injections Wegovy and Ozempic is based. A conversation about the success of the means and the price, that those treated pay.
The promise is gigantic: one injection per week and the pounds should fall away. What’s more: the new weight loss aids could also reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Semaglutide is the name of the enabler that is found in medications like Ozempic or Wegovy. The active ingredient mimics a hormone from the intestine called GLP-1. The hormone not only regulates insulin secretion and gastric emptying, but also appetite. More than 40 years ago, it was the Dane Jens Juul Holst who carried out some of the earliest scientific work on the hormone. Since then, the physiologist has been considered one of the midwives of weight loss aids that the whole world is talking about currently bringing record sales to the Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk.