In any case, the diabetic drug Ozempic was a huge hit, earning billions of dollars in annual revenue. In the US alone, pharmacies have met millions of prescriptions for Ozempic and related drugs.
But first, before the celebrity support and fragments of thought and the world's supply crunch, there was a talented, toxic lizard for intermittent fasting. Gira monsters native to the North American desert can survive on several meals a year thanks to the venom of the hormone that is digested.
The discovery of this hormone paved the way for Ozempic and made Gila Monster a highly profitable gift for modern medicine. And last summer, a certain Gila Monster, a former pet named Pebbles, needed medicine in return.
Pevbulls, a resident of Creature Conservancy, a wildlife education institution in Ann Arbor, Michigan, was infected with a parasite called Cryptosporidium. It's difficult to kill, parasites It settles in the digestive tract and is usually a reptile's death sentence.
Veterinarians recommended humane euthanizing of pebbles. However, the creature conservancy was not ready to accept the fate of the pebbles, who had at least another decade of life ahead of her.
“I hope I can fix her,” said Steve Marsh, founder of Creature Conservancy, one afternoon last July.
He corrected himself: “If he could fix her,” he said. He nodded to the sharply dressed man who was holding a pebble in his gloved hand. Tim Cernack, a pharmaceutical chemist at the University of Michigan.
A few minutes later, the vet inserted the tube into the lizard's throat and collected fluid from the stomach. Dr. Cernak then studied the sample in the lab, hoping to find a drug that could quarantine the parasite and beat it.
