{"id":78331,"date":"2025-08-19T18:08:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T18:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/78331\/"},"modified":"2025-08-19T18:08:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T18:08:08","slug":"poisons-board-warns-against-misuse-of-ozempic-for-weight-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/78331\/","title":{"rendered":"Poisons Board warns against misuse of Ozempic for weight loss"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Pharmacy and Poisons Board CEO Fred Siyoi. [File, Standard]<\/p>\n


\n <\/p>\n

The Pharmacy and Poisons Board (PPB) has cautioned the public against using semaglutide, commonly sold as Ozempic, for weight loss.<\/p>\n

In a statement on Tuesday, August 19, Chief Executive Officer Fred Siyoi said the drug is a prescription-only medicine approved for treating type 2 diabetes, but its misuse for cosmetic purposes is rising.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Board wishes to bring to the attention of the public that semaglutide is a Prescription-Only Medicine, and its unsupervised or off-label use may result in serious health outcomes,\u201d said Siyoi.<\/p>\n

The Board, mandated to regulate the quality, safety, and distribution of drugs, health products, and technologies in Kenya, also highlighted possible side effects.<\/p>\n

They include low blood sugar (hypoglycemia), eye conditions, acid reflux, and intestinal obstruction, which can range from mild to severe.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the benefits of Semagluude outweigh its risks, serious safety concerns continue to be raised,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The Pharmacy Board has urged the public to avoid misuse of the drug and to report any suspected side effects or poor-quality products.<\/p>\n

The warning follows a growing trend in the country, including by social media influencers and marketing firms, that are now promoting semaglutide as a shortcut to weight loss, without informing the masses of the side effects.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 Pharmacy and Poisons Board CEO Fred Siyoi. [File, Standard] The Pharmacy and Poisons Board…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[39937,102,6591,578,39936,16839,15037,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-78331","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-ceo-fred-siyoi","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-medication","11":"tag-ozempic","12":"tag-pharmacy-and-poisons-board","13":"tag-semaglutide","14":"tag-type-2-diabetes","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}