Semaglutide and other drugs are capturing the public’s imagination with the prospect of off-label pharmaceutical cures for obesity. 

The idea that regular injections are the solution to looking like Kim Kardashian — or at least reaching the patient’s BMI targets — is understandably attractive. 

But doctors, like Dr Priya Sumithran, from the University of Melbourne, say it is not that simple. 

The endocrinologist wrote in The Medical Journal of Australia earlier this year that the drug options “might be useful” for patients if diet and lifestyle changes were not working, but the cost and the lack of long-term trial data were reasons to be cautious.