David Cooper

Thank you, David.

Thanks for having me.

Before we get to how many people are actually using Ozempic for alcohol use disorders, how effective is it based on the research?

Now, I'm not a doctor, in case you're wondering, so correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding is once a drug hits the market and it's proven safe for the general public, doctors can use it in a process called off-label prescription for things that they think it could help for.

Because Ozempic is known to be safe, and I'm sure there are people who have alcohol use disorder who talk to their doctor, when they do get prescribed it off-label, what are they saying?

Clinical trials, yeah.

I'm actually prescribed gabapentin off-label for some mental health stuff, even though it's used.

Anyway, okay.

I want to talk about alcohol abuse and people who have it.

If I had some other illness, mental health problem, and I went to talk to a doctor, it would be likely or possible that I would get prescribed medication.

Is it the case that people who have alcohol problems very rarely get prescribed things, like at a much lower rate of other disorders, health issues?

If so, why is that happening?

Lorenzo, if only 2% of people with diabetes got insulin, that would be like a national health problem, epidemic, scandal, that kind of thing.

I started this interview with, I think, a mistake a lot of people make, and I kind of lamented.

I started this interview by talking about how Ozempic or GLP-1 drugs were an exciting potential treatment for alcoholism.

But the real fact is there already are drugs that are known to help.

And so the real conversation should be, and I'm glad it's taking this turn.

I'm glad I've sort of made this mistake in real time.

There's kind of like a cultural stigma prescribing problem, not really like a science gap because drugs to help with alcoholism already exist.

I suppose it is exciting that Ozempic GLP-1 drugs could help.