Ozempic for pets! Overweight cats and dogs could soon be offered weight-loss programs in a bid to curb the pet obesity crisis, a pharmaceutical company claims.

Pharmaceutical industry bigwigs are already cashing in on the blockbuster profits from weight loss drugs like Ozempic, with drug companies raking in a whopping £20 billion this year.

But truly big cats — and big puppies — could be a new group of “patients” who would benefit from weight-loss injections, experts say.

British pets, like their owners, are becoming increasingly round, for many of the same reasons: they are eating too much and not getting enough exercise.

So it seems inevitable that as more people turn to weight loss programs like Wegovy and Ozempic, as well as their rival Mounjaro, there will be growing interest in using them on our four-legged friends.

Surveys suggest that the pet obesity crisis, like humans’ struggle with obesity, is getting worse.

According to nearly 150 veterinarians surveyed by UK Pet Food, around 50% of dogs and 43% of cats are overweight or obese.

And among veterinarians surveyed, 77 percent said they believed the prevalence of obesity in pets had increased.

Professor Alex German, a small animal medicine expert from the University of Liverpool who runs a specialist obesity clinic for dogs and cats, believes one day we could see our pets given drugs like Ozempic .

He believes that semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy, could, just as it does in humans, curb the appetite of pets and therefore be an effective treatment for obesity in some cases.

However, he added that this would depend on proof of its safety and effectiveness in animal trials.

Professor German added that although dietary pet medications had been launched in the past, an oral drug called Slentrol, and failed to take off, he believed owners and vets were more likely to accept them in the Ozempic era.

“The idea that obesity in pets is the fault and responsibility of the owner is wrong because it can be genetic and is more complex than a failing owner. We should support owners as best we can” , he told the Telegraph.

Veterinarian Alicia Fox-Pitt agreed, saying she could see it used in scenarios where an owner is no longer able to exercise their pet or control its diet.

“If someone in the household has dementia, they will often forget that they fed the dog,” she said.

Not surprisingly, pharmaceutical companies are already exploring the potentially lucrative Ozempic market for pets.

In February, Better Choice, a pet pharmaceutical company, announced it would do just that.

“The goal of the research and development is to mirror the weight loss benefits of leading brands for pets and humans, including Slentrol, Wegovy, Ozempic and Mounjaro, with added protein and nutrients sourced from of the company’s halo products to promote lean muscle mass and overall. pet health,” a company release said.

Better Choice is putting its money where its mouth is and plans to spend $1.5 million (£1.185 million) on trials of a GLP-1 agonist for companion animals, the class of drugs to which Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro belong.

Some companies are already testing them. In May of this year, biotechnology company Okava Pharmaceuticals announced the results of a small trial in which it implanted a GLP-1 agonist delivery system into cats and then measured their weight for 112 days.

At the end of the study, published in the journal BMC Veterinary Research and involving five cats, four of them lost 5 percent of their body weight.

However, Professor German said he would still advise pet owners to embark on a weight loss diet to help overweight pets lose weight.

The method he uses for dogs involves special diets, exercise programs based on the animal’s breed and size, and methods to prolong feeding such as puzzle feeders where the animal must manually extract food from a special bowl.

He argued that this can cause overweight animals to lose 20 to 25 percent of their body weight, allowing them to have greater mobility and a better quality of life.

“A therapeutic diet is safe and effective. Given that we already have an option that can work as well as drug therapy, why rush to use (weight loss drugs)?” he said.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals advises dogs to get at least 30 minutes of exercise every day.

The advice for cats is a little broader, but the charity says our feline friends should still have plenty of opportunities for exercise, such as climbing and playing every day.

GLP-1 agonists work by mimicking a hormone that their bodies naturally release to tell us that we are full.

Weekly injections such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro have been shown to be very effective in helping obese people lose excess weight, with some people losing up to 22.5% of their body weight while on treatment.

However, as with any medication, side effects have been reported, including some Hollywood stars who may have lost control of their bowel movements.

Authorities also recommend that people who take them take them for life, otherwise users may simply gain weight again, a rule that can also apply to pets who take these drugs.

Medications like Ozempic were initially designed to help people with diabetes manage their disease, but the treatment was found to also cause weight loss.

The huge demand, including among those who take it for cosmetic reasons, has led some diabetic patients to run out.

As production ramps up, opening the market to pets could further expand supply.

The extremely high demand has also led pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk to enjoy a huge boom in profits thanks to the huge hunger for its Ozempic and Wegovy vaccines.

Earlier this year, the Danish company revealed it was making £32 million a day, as countries grapple with the financial cost of battling the fat to get their hands on vaccines.

The analysis suggests that combined sales of the company’s Ozempic and Wegovy brands generated £20.5 billion this year.

British pets are doing better than their owners when it comes to losing weight: overall, two-thirds of British adults are now overweight.

It has been clearly established that obesity increases the risk of serious health problems that can damage the heart, such as high blood pressure, as well as cancers.

Being overweight is believed to cause one in 20 cancer cases in Britain, according to Cancer Research UK.

Britain’s obesity crisis is also estimated to cost the nation nearly £100 billion a year.

This colossal figure includes damage to the health of the NHS as well as secondary economic effects such as lost income from people missing work due to illness and premature deaths.