Dutch pharmacies distributed prescriptions for €31 million-worth of weight loss drugs such as Ozempic, Saxenda en Wegovy in the first nine months of this year, according to figures from medical statistics agency SFK.

The number of users is up almost 40% on the same period in 2023, when 24,000 were using the slimming aid, the Telegraaf reported on Friday. Their number has now risen by 10,000.

VU University health economist Xander Koolman told the paper he was not surprised by the figures, given that one in eight Americans are now using the drug. “If health insurance companies start funding this drug more often, and the side effects are okay, then we will get a similar situation here,” he said.

According to national statistics agency CBS, around half the Dutch are overweight and this is costing society some €80 billion a year. Of them, some 16% are clinically obese.

Health insurers currently only pay for the drug if patients have a BMI of more than 35 and have other health issues, such as diabetes. Patients also have to take part in a year-long programme to improve their lifestyle.

This, the Telegraaf said, has result in some 15,000 people paying for the drug themselves by signing up with specialist clinics. Treatment can cost some €3,500 per year.

In 2018 the government launched a national plan to improve the nation’s health known as the National Prevention Accord which aimed to cut the number of people who are overweight to 38% of the total population. 

However, the percentage of adults classified as obese – with a body mass index of more than 30 – is now three times as high as in the 1980s