2. The Approval

This five-part series explores the weight loss drug revolution and the meteoric rise of the pharmaceutical companies that manufacture them.

Presented by Professor Giles Yeo, who researches how these drugs affect the brain in Cambridge University, the series reveals the latest research, tells the story of the scientific breakthroughs that made Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) weight loss drugs possible and describes the marketing strategy that turned them into household names.

Throughout each episode Giles meets researchers, doctors and journalists to discuss the ethical dilemmas of accessibility and affordability and explains what they do and how they work. He also reveals the unexpected impacts that the widespread use of these drugs is having on our health and society.

Episode 2: The Approval
In this episode Giles explains how a venomous lizard called a ‘Gila Monster’ helped to make weight loss drugs possible, takes us through the race between two huge pharmaceutical companies to get the drugs to market, and how the drugs were finally approved.

Contributors:
Professor Giles Yeo
Giles Yeo is a Professor of Molecular Neuroendocrinology and programme leader at the MRC Metabolic Diseases Unit in Cambridge, and his research currently focuses on the influence of genes on feeding behaviour and body-weight.

Harry Yeo
Harry Yeo is Giles Yeo’s son and is currently taking weight loss drugs.

Dr Luke McDonough
Luke is an associate professor at the London School of Economics Law School.

Aimee Donnellan
Aimee is a Reuters journalist and writes about pharmaceuticals, consumer goods groups, retail and insurance.

Dr Lotte Bjerre Knudsen
Lotte is Novo Nordisk’s Chief Scientific Advisor, and led the research group back in the early 1990s that first invented the molecule that made them possible.

Professor Barbara McGowan
Barbara is a professor of endocrinology and diabetes based at Guy’s and St. Thomas' Hospital

Dr Graham Easton
Graham is an academic GP with extensive experience in undergraduate and postgraduate medical education. He also takes weight loss drugs.

Kamran Abassi
Kamran is editor in chief of the British Medical Journal

Henry Dimbleby
Henry is a British businessman and cookery writer who is a co-founder of Leon Restaurants and the Sustainable Restaurant Association. He was appointed lead non-executive board member of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in March 2018.

Professor Frank Ryman
Frank works at the Institute of Metabolic Science in Cambridge alongside Giles Yeo researching how weight loss drugs affect the brain.

Cheri Ferguson
Cheri takes weight loss drugs after a lifetime of dieting; 28 days in Cheri noticed her need to vape completely changed.

Dr Tony Goldstone
Tony is a clinical associate professor and consultant endocrinologist at Imperial College London.

A Changing World production for BBC Radio 4