Who benefits from classifying obesity as a disease? Pharma firms lead the push

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As global approvals of new anti-obesity medicines accelerate, drugmakers have a public service announcement for the world: “Obesity is a disease.” Eli Lilly launched a website asserting that obesity is not merely a risk factor for medical complications but a chronic and complex medical entity in its own right. Novo Nordisk, more circumspectly, appeals to institutional authority on its website : “Recognised as a disease by the World Health Organization, obesity is serious, progressive and chronic.”

It is no surprise that the new wave of obesity pharmacotherapy has leaned heavily on disease framing. A medical solution requires a medical problem, and a chronic medical problem provides a rationale for long-term medical treatment.

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