Health

Weight loss without the syringe

Drug makers are racing to be the first to market with an oral version of the latest weight loss drugs that have grown in popularity in the last year.

Why it matters: Popular drugs, including Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro and Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy, are given as weekly injections, which is inconvenient and sometimes painful.

Driving the news: On Sunday, Novo Nordisk presented findings on a trial of the oral version of semaglutide - the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy - for people who are overweight or obese and don’t have type II diabetes.

• Participants in the phase 3 clinical trial lost 15% of their body weight on average, after 68 weeks.

• The weight loss seen in the trial mirrored the results from a separate Novo Nordisk’s clinical trial where people received weekly injections of the drug over the same time period.

How do these drugs work? Most of these drugs work in the same way by mimicking a hormone that tells your brain you have eaten and are satiated. This feeling of being satisfied or “full”, suppresses appetite.

Big picture: An oral weight loss drug would likely give people more choices and increase access, but the side effects of the pill could be worse than than the injection option.

• A low dose version of semaglutide is already approved for type II diabetes, and patients tend to report more side effects, especially nausea, according to Dr. Shauna Levy, an obesity medicine specialist.

What’s next? An oral weight loss drug probably won’t be on the market this year, but Novo Nordisk plans to file for FDA approval sometime in 2023.

Business & Economy

U.S. stock markets closed lower on Monday (S&P -0.45%, Nasdaq -1.16%, Dow -0.04%) ~ Pullback in tech stocks caused the Nasdaq to slump as the market settles from its hot start in the first half of the year.

PWC is selling its government advisory business in Australia to private equity fund Allegro for one Aussie dollar - or $0.07 - after a scandal left the company’s reputation in shreds.

IBM will buy software company Apptio for $4.6bn to help bolster its cloud computing offerings.

World

Nearly 2 million Muslims will take part in the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia this week as the religious festival returns to full capacity after years of COVID-19 restrictions.  

A tourist was filmed carving his and his fiancée’s names into the 2,000 year-old Colosseum in Rome. The man could be fined $16k and face up to 5 years in prison.

Myanmar authorities burned half a billion dollars in illegal drugs but warned they are failing to stop the production and trafficking of narcotics in the region.

US News, Politics, & Government

President Biden announced plans to use $40bn from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to increase high speed internet access, especially to those that live in underserved areas. 

Panama City Beach became the leader in beach deaths in the U.S. this year after three people died Saturday while grappling with rip currents. Nine people have died in ocean related accidents in Panama City in 2023.

A Colorado court sentenced Anderson Lee Aldrich to life in prison for murdering five people at an LQBGT+ club in Colorado Springs in 2022. 

Sports & Entertainment

LSU beat Florida 18-4 to win the Men’s College World Series for the 7th time.

Jesse Watters will take over Tucker Carlson’s 8 p.m. time slot on July 17.

Actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney join a group purchasing a stake in Alpine F1 racing team for $218m.

Science, Health, & Tech

The iPhone 14’s automatic crash detection feature falsely made 911 calls after mistaking concertgoers dance moves for car crashes at Bonnaroo music festival over the weekend.

A recent study found that Monarch butterflies with larger white spots on their wings fly more efficiently, making migration easier.

The CDC issued a warning about the first locally acquired malaria cases in the U.S. in 20 years. Four people in Florida and one person in Texas contracted the disease.

The latest “ridiculous” Tik Tok trend is to use beer to tan. 

Chief Step Officer: Get paid $10,000 to walk 10,000 steps per day for a month.

Watch: Firefighters rescue a horse from a pool. In Florida, of course.

Russia is training combat dolphins to protect its Navy base in Sevastopol.

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