About Today’s Title

You’d be hard pressed these days to find anyone who hasn’t heard of Ozempic, the diabetes drug approved for weight loss in 2021. The weight loss rollout for the drug in the US relied on heavy rotation of a commercial that featured the 1974 hit Magic by Scottish band Pilot. With the song’s catchy first line reconfigured as “Oh Oh Oh Ozempic” it is now burned into many of our minds with an association with the drug. Watch Pilot perform the original in this remastered music video on YouTube.

Aimee Donnellan’s Off the Scales is a fascinating look at the rise of GLP-1 drugs, with a focus on their amazing ability to help people control their weight. In particular the book focuses on Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic, with its ability to help people lose 15 to 20% of their body weight.

Before Ozempic there was the discovery of the hormone glucagon-like peptide 1, or GLP-1. Just exactly who discovered GLP-1, and realized its significance as a treatment for diabetes, and its side effect of reducing obesity, and at what institution, are topics covered in the book. There is some dispute, and conflicting claims as to who was responsible for what, but Svetlana Mojsov is credited with the discovery of the hormone itself, and her research helped lay the groundwork for the development of treatments based on GLP-1 for diabetes and weight loss.

Donnellan takes us through those early days in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It would be decades between those initial discoveries and the release of Ozempic and other GLP-1 drugs. In the meantime, obesity was becoming a larger and larger problem. So, Donellan dives into the rise of high fat / high sugar ultra-processed foods, and the need for the makers of those foods to get us all to eat more of them to increase their bottom lines. As consumption of these foods, first in the US but now globally, increased, obesity tended to follow.

This all lays the groundwork for the rest of the book about the true believers in Ozempic at Novo Nordisk. Donnellan takes us inside their multiyear effort to champion the drug through internal politics and then clinical trials. The result? They finally get the drug to market, first for type 2 diabetes and then for weight loss. Donnellan focuses on the personalities and the timelines rather than taking too deep a dive into the science, and the result is a smart and highly readable account.

This is exactly the kind of book I enjoy — a highly readable overview of a scientific breakthrough. It’s easily the best reportorial nonfiction book I’ve read this year.

RATING: Four and a Half Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐🌠

RATING COMMENTS: A fascinating look at the rise of GLP-1 drugs, with a focus on Ozempic. Easily the best reportorial nonfiction books I’ve read this year.

WHERE I GOT MY COPY: I read an advanced reviewer’s ebook copy courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher St. Martin’s Press. The book will be publicly available next Tuesday, November 18, 2025.