Could increasing use of the weight-loss drug Ozempic in Australia be responsible for falling drinks sales around the country?

According to investment bank Morgan Stanley there were 79,000 Australians using Ozempic in July last year. It predicts that number will surge to 2.4 million by 2030 – equivalent to 9% of the population. And there’s increasing evidence its not just helping Aussies eat less, it’s also turning them off drinking alcohol.

Ozempic is a GLP-1 drug – a class of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist medications used to treat type 2 diabetes. The drugs work by mimicking the effects of a natural hormone, GLP-1, to improve blood sugar control.

While the first GLP-1 drug was released in 2005 to help ­diabetics, early users reported an unexpected side ­effect of weight loss and more recently its been shown to inhibit alcohol consumption.

Research presented at the 32nd European Congress on Obesity in Spain in May showed that diabetic drug semaglutide cut weekly drinks in 179 people with overweight or obesity who consumed more than 10 units of alcohol a week or the equivalent of five beers per week. Among regular drinkers, the study found, their drinking dropped from about 23 units to about eight units per week — a reduction of more than 65%.

The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission’s most recent national wastewater drug monitoring program report shows consumption of alcohol hit a record low in Australian capital cities in June 2024.

Reflecting a two-year trend, alcohol consumption was down in both regional areas and cities.

Dr Mike D’Arcy-Evans, a Perth GP with a special interest in obesity, told The Australian: “This year, 50% of my Ozempic patients – people who really like a drink – are suddenly going off alcohol. GLP-1s could absolutely change the way we live. When you see even physicians ­jabbing themselves, you wonder if this might be the most exciting – and controversial – drug of our generation.”

“We’ve known for some time from animal studies that GLP-1 receptor agonists reduce alcohol intake and motivation to consume alcohol,” Christian Hendershot, director of clinical research at the University of Southern California Institute for Addiction Science, told NBC News.

Theories include that its effects may have something to do with the drugs’ ability to reduce cravings and the effects of alcohol. Studies using both animals and humans as test subjects have found that GLP-1 drugs reduce the release of dopamine when alcohol is consumed.

In Brown-Forman’s Q4 2025 earnings call CEO Lawson Whiting said “the big 3” were hitting the spirits industry – GLP-1, cannabis and Gen Z.

“We’d be naive if we didn’t say that there isn’t some pressure coming from those,” he said.

Earlier this year Fundsmith investment manager Terry Smith revealed he sold his stocks in Diageo in 2024 because his firm suspects that the “entire drinks sector is in the early stages of being impacted negatively by weight-loss drugs”.

In his annual letter to investors Smith said Brown-Forman was also feeling the heat following studies showing that drugs such as Ozempic can cut alcohol cravings by as much as half.

“Brown-Forman, one of the world’s top five drinks companies and the distiller of Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey has suffered from the fall in consumption from the pandemic highs and is probably seeing early signs of the adverse impact of weight-loss drugs,” Smith said.

“We sold our Diageo stake during the year which I will cover later but retaining Brown-Forman keeps a foothold in what has long been a sector with good business characteristics and which has the potential benefits of family control, which can promote good long-term decision making, and a larger bias towards premium spirits than Diageo which may help obviate the impact of weight loss drugs (‘drink less but better quality’). It is a company which survived Prohibition so we hope there is literally something in the DNA to help with these adverse circumstances.”

New York University marketing professor, best-selling author and podcaster Scott Galloway told the ADMA Global Forum in Sydney last year that the stocks of food, drinks and quick-service restaurant businesses could soon feel the impact of GLP-1 drugs.

He claimed the average Ozempic user consuming 62% less alcohol, and of those people, 20% cut out alcohol entirely.

“I think it’s going to rock the stock market,” he said. “I would not want to be in the drinks business, the quick-service food business, the sugary, salty, fatty businesses.

“I think this is going to dramatically reshape [the market]. Everyone’s talking about AI, but I think this is going to be a bigger meteor in terms of where market capitalisation flows to and from over the next 24 months.”

The economic impact of Ozempic on hospitality

The Australian Financial Review published an article last month called: “Why teetotallers are such a drag (on the economy)”.

It wrote: “The amount of alcohol consumed globally is probably in decline for the first time in history. In rich countries, many members of Gen Z – born after the late 1990s – are shunning alcohol entirely.”

It added: “Consider the economics of the restaurant industry. Alcohol offers higher profit margins than food because it requires less labour to prepare. Indeed, using official American data, your columnist estimates that booze accounts for all the profits of the restaurant industry. Drinkers subsidise non-drinkers. Those who order sparkling water can feel sanctimonious in the short run. But if no one orders a bottle of Bordeaux, many restaurants will go under.”