James Kynge

So we're talking, as you just said, a massive commercial market there that's just getting underway.

There is also one angle to this which might surprise listeners, and that is that not only humans in China, but also pets are

are perhaps going to be receiving these slimming drugs.

Indeed, a unit of Huadong Medicine received acceptance notices from Chinese regulators for veterinary drug registration applications that target weight management.

And these are apparently going to be given to cats.

And there's a rather touching story in the South China Morning Post about Irina Zhou and her five-year-old cat.

And apparently this cat gains about one kilogram every year or has done for the last three years.

And she wants to get her cat

onto a veterinary version of a Chinese ozempic drug.

So it's not just people, it's also cats that are getting out of shape in China and maybe are going to be given these drugs as well.

Yeah, I mean, the cultural shift is just huge.

When I was in China, I was in a company.

There were a bit more than a couple of hundred people there sitting in those, you know, big cubicle offices.

And I would say 90%, maybe 95% of the people there never went out for lunch.

They just got the, you know, the order of whatever it may be, or they brought it with them in a Tupperware box and

and they would eat sitting at their desks.

And so it meant that with long hours in the office, maybe you're having two meals sitting at your desk, you don't get any exercise.

As we all know, that's not a healthy way to live.

And it's very easy to pack on the weight if you've got cortisol as well from the stress.

And many Chinese companies work in a very stressful environment.