Wegovy hits the People’s Republic, at last
China mainlines “Musk’s miracle medicine”, at a fraction of the cost in America
IT IS KNOWN in China as “Musk’s miracle medicine”. In 2022 the boss of Tesla and new owner of Twitter, now X, gave credit for his slimmer figure to Wegovy, a drug manufactured by Novo Nordisk, a Danish firm. News about the drug quickly went viral on Chinese social media, where Mr Musk is wildly popular. The hype was, unusually, justified. Wegovy’s active ingredient, semaglutide, belongs to a class of drugs known as GLP-1 receptor agonists. GLP-1s help control blood sugar and promise to bring many other benefits as well.
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This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline “The weight is over”
From the November 30th 2024 edition
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