Label unhealthy foods, weight drug boss tells Australia

Australia should turn its experience reducing smoking rates to the obesity epidemic by introducing more obvious labels on unhealthy foods, making workplaces run staff health checks and speeding up the development of crucial medications, the head of a leading drug company says.

Mike Doustdar, president of Novo Nordisk, which created the weight-loss wonder drug Ozempic, said the 13 million Australians who were overweight or obese were making the nation less productive and putting extra strain on the health system.

Australia was uniquely placed to tackle the issue but needed a society-wide public health response, Mr Doustdar told the National Press Club on Monday.

"If we intervene early today, before patterns are entrenched and before disease takes hold, we can improve health for the next generation," he said.

Australia was the first country in the world to introduce plain packaging for cigarettes, which drove a dramatic decline in smoking rates and set an example now followed in dozens of other countries.

Mr Doustdar said we could play a similar world-leading public health role in responding to high rates of obesity.

He called for drugs to be listed more quickly on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme - which would allow Australians to access them at reduced cost - and suggested the government could do more to embed education about healthy eating into school curricula.

Businesses should offer workplace health checks alongside healthy food and activity options for employees, he said, and food companies should make the health benefits of their products clear.

"I have lived in countries where there is a lot of food nutrition things written on the package but frankly speaking, I need to get binoculars to be able to read it," he said.

"So the question is: is that being written there to obey a law, or is it genuinely being written there to change behaviour?"

Asked about a long-standing Australian Medical Association proposal to tax sugary drinks, Mr Doustdar said such a measure could be part of the solution but would not achieve much on its own.

He pointed to Denmark's attempt to introduce a tax on saturated fat in 2011, which was repealed a year later.

"I think it will help to some extent, but probably not on its own," he said.

Mr Doustdar said Australia's efforts to slash smoking rates by introducing packaging showing graphic images of tobacco-induced cancers were a far more effective way to change people's behaviours than simply slapping taxes on them.