Perspective with Ryan Bridge: Will Wegovy really solve everything?

I was at the movies recently and the first three ads that came up in the shorts beforehand were pretty interesting.

We had a fast food ad... I think it was KFC... some new chicken thing you can eat, then we had a Burger Fuel ad, and for dessert, to top things off, we had a Wegovy ad.

There was a woman climbing stairs, out of breath, and a chubby guy struggling to get into a wetsuit. The message was simple: take this drug and get you life back.

If you look at the fattest countries in the world, we're a podium finish. We're the third biggest developed country on earth. The Americans are, unsurprisingly, ahead of us.

If you go to the movies, you see cause and affect in the space of three minutes of ads.

Too much processed food + lack of exercise = obesity. Divided now by Wegovy, of course.

Now the debate is - who should pay.

I heard an argument yesterday which was interesting, because you hear about people putting all the weight back on once the drugs wear off.

If the state pays for the drugs, the argument goes that you'd be less likely to keep the weight off because you're not as financially invested in the outcome as you would be if you paid out of your own pocket.

Is it more effective if paid for by an individual?

I don't know the answer to that question, but the problem we have in New Zealand - which they don't have so much in America, is a public health system - where the costs of being overweight, heart disease, diabetes etc. is worn by all of us.

The indirect costs are between $7 billion and $9 billion per year.

The cost of handing out free Wegovy could be as high as $3 billion a year. Pharmac's budget is $1.7 billion a year.

So the question for Pharmac is simple - do the costs outweigh the benefits? And if you fund the drug, will people stay on it and actually keep the weight off?

In the USA, RFK's just flipped the food pyramid and put protein at the top. There's an 'eat real food' campaign kicking off.

Given the amount of fast food and Wegovy ads we're being bombarded with, would it not be sensible to also have some ads telling people about all the fresh NZ meat, dairy and veges they should be eating everyday?

Ryan Bridge is a New Zealand broadcaster who has worked on many current affairs television and radio shows. He currently hosts Newstalk ZB's Early Edition - where this article was sourced.