Australia’s former deputy top doc Nick Coatsworth has called out a senior executive of the company behind wonder weight loss drug Ozempic for ‘fat-shaming’ Western Sydney.
Cem Ozenc lives in Sydney and is the head of Oceania for drug company Novo Nordisk, the manufacturer of weight loss/diabetes injectable Ozempic.
In a magazine interview, the Turkish-born executive said: ‘I always thought about [Australia in terms of] Olympians, an amazing sporting country, very conscious about health.
‘In my mind was Bondi [Beach]. Everyone is a runner. Everyone is healthy. Everyone is very fit.’
But after moving to Australia in 2022, Ozenc says he was confronted by a very different reality.
‘All of a sudden, you go to western Sydney, you go to Nepean, and you see, wow, this is not the Australia I thought about,’ he told the AFR‘s Boss magazine.
Ozempic company boss thought everyone in Australia was athletic, healthy and beautiful
But Cem Ozenc said he found a very different picture when he headed to Sydney’s west
The comments have sparked a backlash from Dr Coatsworth, the nation’s deputy chief health officer when the Covid pandemic broke out.
He questioned the way the drug company executive had framed his comments, saying he ‘appears to have fat-shamed Western Sydney’.
‘Cem Ozenc, head of Novo Nordisk Oceania, which has not been able to fully supply Ozempic to Australia, appears to have fat-shamed Western Sydney in an article in the AFR,’ he posted on social media platform, X.
Supply shortages of Ozempic in Australia have plagued users of the wonder drug and pharmacies have struggled to keep pace with demand.
The problem has caused profound health implications and stress for many affected.
Dr Coatsworth told Daily Mail Australia the company should be focused on stepping up deliveries of the drug, with lives potentially at risk because of the delays.
‘The studies sponsored by Mr Ozenc’s employer Novo Nordisk, if they are to be believed, showed that for every 40 obese patients treated with Ozempic, one heart attack could be prevented,’ he said.
Dr Coatsworth went on to take aim at the lack of availability of Ozempic and the dangerous impact it could have here in Australia.
Cem Ozenc (left) lives in Sydney and is the head of Oceania for drug company Novo Nordisk, the manufacturer of weight loss/ diabetes injectable Ozempic – and his comments have sparked a backlash from Dr Nick Coatsworth (right)
Supply shortages of Ozempic in Australia have plagued users of the wonder drug and pharmacies have struggled to keep pace with demand
‘Mr Ozenc has compared Ozempic to Viagra, but missing out on Viagra has low health impacts,’ he added.
‘Missing out on Ozempic has a material impact on the health of Australians.’
The World Health Organisation found Australia had the third highest proportion of overweight adults in the English speaking world in 2007.
Since then, obesity rates in Australia have continued to trend upwards.
According to the OECD, Australia is ranked ninth amongst its members for the proportion of people aged 15 and over who are overweight or obese, above the OECD average of 60 per cent.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, over the past decade the proportion of adult Australians who were overweight or obese has risen from 62.8 per cent in 2012 to 65.8 per cent in 2022.
The breakdown between those who are overweight (35.6 per cent) and obese (31.3 per cent) is roughly equal.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Novo Nordisk for comment.