And now to the battle of the bulge and that new generation of weight-loss drugs:

TIM DAVIES: Ozempic and Mounjaro have revolutionised weight loss with half a million Australians now using them. 

Today, Nine, 29 Nov 2025

Nine’s Today show has brought the story of these marvels of medicine to breakfast tables across the country sometimes wheeling in its resident medico Dr Nick Coatsworth: 

ALISON PIOTROWSKI: This is fascinating, half-a-million Aussies now using these drugs. Are you surprised by that number?

DR NICK COATSWORTH: I’m not really surprised. I’ll tell you why Ally, it’s because these drugs are really so effective at what they do. 

Today, Nine, 29 Nov 2025

Effective yes, but not a magic bullet and not appropriate for all, as Coatsworth made clear:

DR NICK COATSWORTH: You’ve gotta remember if you don’t have diabetes, if you’re not carrying large amounts of weight, then there are side effects associated with the drugs … 

Today, Nine, 29 Nov 2025

Though his focus, he told viewers, is on how to ensure the drugs are reaching those in genuine need: 

DR NICK COATSWORTH: I’m more interested in the people with real health problems who aren’t actually getting these medications and how we get it out to them. 

Today, Nine, 29 Nov 2025

So should the government underwrite these drugs for more Australians and not just those with type 2 diabetes? 

DR NICK COATSWORTH: We would not be the only government in the world to go down the path of subsidising these … there’s probably no better way to discuss preventative medicine than discussing weight loss within the community …   

Today, Nine, 29 Nov 2025

As it turns out, Channel Nine’s go-to physician has appeared a number of times talking about the use of these weight-loss drugs and their potential side effects not just on Today but also A Current Affair: 

DR NICK COATSWORTH: We know they work incredibly well for diabetics, we now know that they are very powerful weight loss drugs … 

A Current Affair, Nine, 13 Sep 2024

And on Nine’s 4pm news bulletin, once more suggesting the use of taxpayer funds to force down the price of these drugs so people can get them who can’t presently afford them:

ELIZA RUGG: … do you back these calls for the drugs to be subsidised on the PBS for those with obesity not just for those with diabetes?

DR NICK COATSWORTH: … if we’re having portions of our population that don’t have access to the drugs then we seriously need to consider government funding. 

Nine Afternoon News (Melb), 2 Dec 2025

But Channel Nine forgot to tell viewers about one piffling little detail which was explained quite nicely by its stablemate the Australian Financial Review:

The former deputy chief medical officer Dr Nick Coatsworth … is now a paid clinical governance adviser to Eucalyptus. 

The Australian Financial Review, 5 Jan 2024

A telehealth company that:

… has tied itself to the weight loss drug Ozempic more effectively than any other in Australia. 

The Australian Financial Review, 5 Jan 2024

Missing from Nick Coatsworth’s official and rather impressive Nine biography is his appointment in mid-2023 as a paid adviser to Eucalyptus which last year turned over hundreds of millions of dollars flogging, yes, weightloss programs like Juniper, which comes in a fancy box that contains health coaching, meal plans, a set of sleek new scales and yes pharmaceuticals by injection that sadly Eucalyptus is barred by law from marketing directly to customers:

… due to Australian Therapeutic Goods regulations, we are unable to discuss specific treatment options until your consult with one of our Juniper practitioners. 

Juniper, FAQs

But only until then. 

Meanwhile, Juniper is marketing its product like this:

EMMA: … we don’t have the time to go to the gym all the time. I love Juniper … 

CAROLE MALONE: And my husband said to me one day, you know I said I would always love you no matter how fat you got. And I said yeah. And he said ‘Well how fat are you intending to get?

Juniper, 7 Mar 2025

With the help of these public service announcements Eucalyptus has served more than 700,000 customers according to the US giant which last month snapped up the company for more than one billion US dollars.

Great news for everyone or not everyone:

Woman hospitalised after Juniper prescribes weight-loss drugs her GP refused

ABC News Online, 1 Feb 2026

CLAIRE MUNCH: I was able to fill out a questionnaire and it asked if I’d ever had a previous eating disorder, which I disclosed that I did. 

… at the end of the questionnaire I was accepted – no questions asked – and I was then sent the medication …   

ABC News, 1 Feb 2026

After months on and off in hospital the company apologised to Claire and promised to better adhere to official healthcare guidelines.

But it doesn’t seem to love Australia’s consumer protections, bemoaning in this November 2025 Facebook post that it was:

… limited in what I can say here thanks to some pesky Aussie laws 👀 😂 

ABC News Online, 29 Dec 2025

And a few years ago, shrugging off the concerns of drug regulators and the Royal Australian College of GPs by pushing ahead with the sale of ‘unapproved’ replica meds to get around a shortage of the real thing.

When Nick Coatsworth penned what we should say is a very balanced piece in the AFR in January last year there was this handy disclosure:

Nick Coatsworth … is a paid adviser on quality and safety for weight loss drugs to the telehealth company Eucalyptus. 

The Australian Financial Review, 6 Jan 2025

And yet, the majority of Nine’s viewers have been none the wiser because of his 10 television appearances that we’ve seen discussing weight loss drugs, including those sold by Eucalyptus, we could only find this one single disclosure almost two years ago:

NICK COATSWORTH: Well I actually sit on the clinical governance advisory committee of Eucalyptus which does sell Ozempic to Australians and other weight loss drugs … 

Today, Nine, 14 Mar 2024

A spokesperson for Eucalyptus told us Coatsworth is not paid to promote its products, and:

It is a matter for Dr Coatsworth to make whatever disclosures he considers appropriate. 

Email, Eucalyptus Spokesperson, 27 Feb 2026

But sadly, neither Nick Coatsworth nor Channel Nine wanted to discuss just how appropriate their disclosures have been of the high-profile medico’s conflict of interest.

The bloke who held our hand through those rather dark years of the pandemic Nick Coatsworth is of course entitled to earn a buck any way he sees fit, but when he appears on our screens suggesting tax dollars might be poured into subsidising a weight loss product, however medically justified his opinion might be, I rather think it behoves him and Nine to remind us he’s copping a pay cheque from a company selling it.