Fifty-five year-old Gujarat resident Ravi* had heard of the weight-loss properties of semaglutide, a diabetes regulating drug with spin-off effects on obesity. While he found it difficult to take the injectable drug, he bought oral pills over-the-counter from a local pharmacy. Several months later he decided to go to Dr Anoop Misra’s clinic to get evaluated, worried about the side effects he had read about. While undergoing tests, he was diagnosed with medullary thyroid cancer. In fact, he had a family history of this type of cancer, and, therefore, belongs to a group of patients unsuited for new-age weight loss drugs. Some animal studies have linked an increase in the risk of this type of cancer with the use of GLP-1 drugs such as semaglutide. “Those with a family history of this type of cancer should not be prescribed semaglutide — the drug comes with a warning. This is why we need to carefully select patients who are given GLP-1 drugs.…