Chinese social media apps, such as Douyin and Xiaohongshu, have been flooded by posts from users bragging about how they’ve easily lost 10 or more pounds within a month with just a few injections of Ozempic, which is the brand name of semaglutide. “This is a wonder drug,” according to a popular series of posts on Xiaohongshu, a Chinese social app similar to Instagram. “No diet, no exercise, you can reduce weight even when you are lying still.
5 mg Ozempic dose is 478 yuan in public hospitals, according to China’s National Reimbursement Drugs List. But prices for the same medication currently range from 36% to 151% higher on online shopping site Taobao. According to its manufacturer, Danish pharmaceutical firm Novo Nordisk\n \n , Ozempic recorded sales of 303 million Danish kroner in China in the nine months after it launched in April 2021. The next year, sales in the country soared more than sevenfold, hitting 2.