The woman erased from the Ozempic story - The Sunday Story

奥兹艾普斯故事中的女子——周日故事

The Story

2026-01-18

32 分钟
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Over forty years ago in a lab in Boston, biochemist Svetlana Mojsov made an astonishing discovery. She'd conjured up a mixture, GLP-1, that successfully increased insulin levels when blood sugars are high - a mammoth breakthrough for diabetes treatment. It's now the secret sauce in weight-loss drugs like Ozempic, which are taken by 1.6 million people. So why wasn't Mojsov recognised for her work? Why was she, like so many women before her, erased from the story? Guest: Aimee Donnellan, journalist and author 'Off the Scales: The Inside Story of Ozempic and the Race to Cure Obesity'. Host: Tom Whipple, science writer and special correspondent, The Times. Producer: Dave Creasey. Buy Aimee Donnellan's book from The Times Bookshop Clips: Sky News Photo: Stephanie Diani for the Sunday Times Magazine. Get in touch: thestory@thetimes.com This podcast was brought to you thanks to subscribers of The Times and The Sunday Times. To enjoy unlimited digital access to all our journalism subscribe here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  • From The Times and Sunday Times, this is the story.

  • I'm Tom Whipple, science writer and special correspondent.

  • Eight years ago, a new medication for diabetes appeared.

  • It worked really well, but it had one extra, rather noticeable, side effect.

  • Until recently, a Zempick was used solely to treat diabetes.

  • But once it was shown to cause dramatic weight loss, the internet and drug companies came alive.

  • One that would have a major impact for millions of people's health across the world.

  • It can make users physically repulsed by food.

  • Proponents say it's a miracle diet drug.

  • Critics call it an eating disorder in an injection.

  • But behind the head and waist lines is a long story of scientific discovery.

  • And at the centre of its first chapter, a woman most people have never heard of.

  • We meet this Svetlana Moisov.

  • She's a scientist.

  • She sets about to create synthetically this hormone in a lab.

  • And what they find is that it is magical.

  • Why was Svetlana Moizov not given the credit for the part she played in the drug that's revolutionised how we eat and live?

  • There's many examples throughout scientific history of women who have worked alongside men in scientific discovery.

  • In some cases,

  • their notebooks were stolen or they waited until they left to write up a big research paper on the discovery that they made together and very much took it for themselves.