Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Peter Shepherd: Auckland University Professor of Molecular Medicine on Pharmac funding weight loss drugs

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Peter Shepherd: Auckland University Professor of Molecular Medicine on Pharmac funding weight loss drugs · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Farmacs seeking advice on whether to fund weight loss medications.
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  Speaker 1: That's you know your we go vies and stuff. New
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  Speaker 1: Zealand has the third highest adult obesity rate in the OECD.
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  Speaker 1: One in three adults and one in eight kids are
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  Speaker 1: classified as a beest. So is there a need for this?
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  Speaker 1: Peter Shepherd as a molecular medicine professor at the University
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  Speaker 1: of Auckland and joys me, now, good morning to your.
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  Speaker 2: Pizza morning Andrew.
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  Speaker 1: How useful do you reckon? These drugs are?
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  Speaker 2: Oh? They are really effective. Drugs at are lowering weight
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  Speaker 2: and improving the health outcomes that are associated with being overweight.
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  Speaker 1: And with those figures which are quite horrific, third highest
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  Speaker 1: adult obesity rate in the OECD, that means they're needed.
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  Speaker 2: I think there really needs to be a solution that
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  Speaker 2: actually works.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, Now, we talked about this in the summer breakfast
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  Speaker 1: and studies over the summer suggests the efficacy of this
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  Speaker 1: drugs are short term. In other words, you take them,
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  Speaker 1: you lose some weight. As soon as you go off
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  Speaker 1: from the hunger comes back and the weight comes on.
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  Speaker 1: So as a short term solution, would that be wasteful?
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  Speaker 2: Farmac spender well that's what we do with all our
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  Speaker 2: other drugs. Andrew, think about it. There will be a
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  Speaker 2: lot of your listeners out there taking statins or you know,
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  Speaker 2: other medications for their heart disease and for their blood pressure.
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  Speaker 2: As soon as they go off them, they lose their
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  Speaker 2: effect as well. But we use those, don't we. So
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  Speaker 2: it's just the same thing in my mind.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, In Australia they've announced with GOVI will be subsidized.
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  Speaker 1: Would it makes sense for us to follow sweet suit?
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  Speaker 1: Or are we different places?
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  Speaker 2: Well, it'll depend on the cost and that'll be the
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  Speaker 2: kicker here At the moment, I think it's probably a
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  Speaker 2: little bit too expensive, but there are a whole lot
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  Speaker 2: of generic versions or much cheaper versions coming down the
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  Speaker 2: line from China and other places. So by this time
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  Speaker 2: next year, I think we'll be in a position where
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  Speaker 2: it is an affordable way to treat obesity.
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  Speaker 1: Would it be a better solution to actually fund bariatric
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  Speaker 1: surgery instead of these short term drugs so that the
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  Speaker 1: most affected get treated.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, I fully agree with you on that one. We
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  Speaker 2: do lots of surgery in this country for things like
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  Speaker 2: knee and hap operation and that's a wonderful way to
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  Speaker 2: spend money because it really helps people long term live
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  Speaker 2: much healthier, more productive lives. We do twenty thirty thousand
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  Speaker 2: of those a year in this country, but we only
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  Speaker 2: do a few hundred bariatric surgeries because of the sort
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  Speaker 2: of preconceptions and prejus is against obesity. So yes, more
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  Speaker 2: bariatric surgery would also be a good investment.
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  Speaker 1: All right, Peter, I, thank you for your time. Peter
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  Speaker 1: is a molecular medicine professor at the University of Auckland.
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  Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
• 2:35
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• 2:38
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