Text for items 29 to 40.

Smart factories (e.g., the industrial Internet of Things (IoT), automation and artificial intelligence (AI)) are radically changing manufacturing. The smart factory revolution is currently on hold, however, due to the shortage of one of its key components, semiconductor chips. Globalization, which has been an important driver of growth and the creation of wealth for decades, has also made our world far more complex. Have we reached a point where this interconnectivity is turning into a liability?

As is so often the case, the current semiconductor crisis is not a one-off problem that appeared out of the blue, it resulted from multiple overlapping crises that have characterized the early 2020s. They include the industry structure itself; limited capacity available to meet the global surge in demand for semiconductor chips, and rising protectionism and geopolitical instability. What is not likely to change anytime soon is the fundamental characteristic of the semiconductor industry itself. The production of semiconductor chips is not only extremely capital-intensive, it is also a very time-consuming process that consists of hundreds of individual steps.

Moreover, the semiconductor industry reflects the state of the global economy. Optimized to maintain the lowest possible level of inventory and maximum capacity utilization, it is hardly surprising—at least in hindsight—that global supply chains are in disarray. This may be easy to say now, but warning signs were already visible prior to 2019. Globalization started crumbling amidst the often abstract discussions on protectionism materializing in the real world, export stops and stockpiling. The impact of the semiconductor shortage on the automotive industry can only be described as dramatic. Around 11.3 million cars could not be produced in 2021 as a result of the semiconductor shortage, and a further 7 million cars are assumed to not have been produced in 2023. Forgone sales in this industry alone have run into the hundreds of billions. Given the fragility of global value chains and the expectation that the underlying conditions will not improve any time soon, questions about how this will all play out are growing.

In particular, smart factories critically depend on semiconductor chips. The Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT), which connects machines and devices and uses sensors and actuators to continuously monitor all stages of the production process, runs on semiconductor chips. Edge computing combined with 5G networks transmit data in real time, feeding into artificial intelligence (AI) control systems, also heavily dependent on semiconductor chips. With the huge volumes of data being generated, exchanged, analysed and used in real time, this demand for chips and programmable logic controllers (PLCs) is only bound to rise in the future. Especially as it is not only smart factories and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT) which depend on semiconductor chips, but also smartphones, personal computers and cars.

There are no quick or simple solutions. Highly complex production processes heavily rely on specialized machinery, which first need to be built; what may pose an even bigger problem is that key consumables in semiconductor production, such as neon, krypton, or argon, depend on key suppliers, in particular Ukraine and the Russian Federation. These key consumables are currently also experiencing severe shortages, and have exacerbated the semiconductor crisis even further.

Internet: < iap.unido.org > (adapted).

According to the text, judge the following items.

Text for items 29 to 40.

Smart factories (e.g., the industrial Internet of Things (IoT), automation and artificial intelligence (AI)) are radically changing manufacturing. The smart factory revolution is currently on hold, however, due to the shortage of one of its key components, semiconductor chips. Globalization, which has been an important driver of growth and the creation of wealth for decades, has also made our world far more complex. Have we reached a point where this interconnectivity is turning into a liability?

As is so often the case, the current semiconductor crisis is not a one-off problem that appeared out of the blue, it resulted from multiple overlapping crises that have characterized the early 2020s. They include the industry structure itself; limited capacity available to meet the global surge in demand for semiconductor chips, and rising protectionism and geopolitical instability. What is not likely to change anytime soon is the fundamental characteristic of the semiconductor industry itself. The production of semiconductor chips is not only extremely capital-intensive, it is also a very time-consuming process that consists of hundreds of individual steps.

Moreover, the semiconductor industry reflects the state of the global economy. Optimized to maintain the lowest possible level of inventory and maximum capacity utilization, it is hardly surprising—at least in hindsight—that global supply chains are in disarray. This may be easy to say now, but warning signs were already visible prior to 2019. Globalization started crumbling amidst the often abstract discussions on protectionism materializing in the real world, export stops and stockpiling. The impact of the semiconductor shortage on the automotive industry can only be described as dramatic. Around 11.3 million cars could not be produced in 2021 as a result of the semiconductor shortage, and a further 7 million cars are assumed to not have been produced in 2023. Forgone sales in this industry alone have run into the hundreds of billions. Given the fragility of global value chains and the expectation that the underlying conditions will not improve any time soon, questions about how this will all play out are growing.

In particular, smart factories critically depend on semiconductor chips. The Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT), which connects machines and devices and uses sensors and actuators to continuously monitor all stages of the production process, runs on semiconductor chips. Edge computing combined with 5G networks transmit data in real time, feeding into artificial intelligence (AI) control systems, also heavily dependent on semiconductor chips. With the huge volumes of data being generated, exchanged, analysed and used in real time, this demand for chips and programmable logic controllers (PLCs) is only bound to rise in the future. Especially as it is not only smart factories and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT) which depend on semiconductor chips, but also smartphones, personal computers and cars.

There are no quick or simple solutions. Highly complex production processes heavily rely on specialized machinery, which first need to be built; what may pose an even bigger problem is that key consumables in semiconductor production, such as neon, krypton, or argon, depend on key suppliers, in particular Ukraine and the Russian Federation. These key consumables are currently also experiencing severe shortages, and have exacerbated the semiconductor crisis even further.

Internet: < iap.unido.org > (adapted).

According to the text, judge the following items.

New light shed on who benefits most from weight-loss jabs

By Philippa Roxby

1. People who carry variations in two genes linked to appetite and digestion can lose more
2. weight when taking drugs to treat obesity, research suggests. The findings, outlined in the Nature
3. journal, could explain why some people lose far more weight than others and why some have
4. particularly bad side-effects, such as nausea and vomiting, while taking them.
5. The popular medicines remove feelings of hunger by acting like a natural gut hormone that
6. makes users feel full. While genes may play a relatively modest role in influencing how well these
7. drugs work, experts say other factors such as your sex, age and even where you come from can
8. also have an impact.
9. It is thought at least 1.6 million people in the UK have tried weight-loss drugs in the past
10. year, and that number is expected to rise. Most are being bought privately through online
11. pharmacies.
12. The percentage of body weight lost when taking weight-loss medication can vary widely.
13. In this study, based on the experiences of 15,000 people taking weight-loss medications, they
14. lost an average of 11.7% of their body weight during roughly eight months of treatment. Some
15. lost 30% of their weight, while others lost little or nothing.
16. All of those 15,000 had previously signed up for gene-testing by the company 23andMe,
17. which used that data to chart the experiences of people taking weight-loss drugs. By analysing
18. millions of their genetic variants, the researchers found a pattern suggesting a link between
19. some variants and the effectiveness of the drugs.
20. Professor Ruth Loos, from the University of Copenhagen, who wrote about the research in
21. Nature journal, said: “The study found a genetic variant associated with weight loss, which was
22. also associated with nausea”.
23. “People lose more weight if they have this variant.” And that extra lost weight amounted to
24. about 0.76 kg (1.6 lbs) on average—but those people who carry two copies of the genes can
25. double the amount they lose.
26. The variant is high in people with European ancestry—64% carry one copy, while 16% of
27. people carry two copies, she says. That compares to 7% of African Americans who carry a copy
28. of the gene. “If you carry the variant, you will lose more weight,” says Prof Loos.
29. The study found another variant that could be responsible for people experiencing
30. side-effects such as nausea and vomiting when taking tirzepatide. And that could mean up to
31. 1% of people taking the drug will have really bad vomiting—nearly 15 times worse than normal.
32. Prof Loos said the genetic effect, while modest, “is similar to other factors—and not trivial”.
33. However, she said the findings need to be reproduced in other studies and, to date, that has not
34. happened.
35. For Dr Marie Spreckley, from the University of Cambridge, “genetics is only one part of a
36. much more complex picture”. In the long term, taking genetic and other information together
37. could help guide the choice of which weight-loss drug to use, based on the potential
38. benefits—something called “precision medicine”.
39. But we are not there yet, said Professor Naveed Sattar, metabolic health expert from the
40. University of Glasgow. “Overall, these findings are scientifically interesting, but they are a long
41. way from changing clinical practice,” he said. “What we really need now is more robust trial data
42. to better define the balance of benefits and harms with these and many other emerging newer
43. therapies”.

(Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn5317dkqnxo – text specially adapted for this test).

New light shed on who benefits most from weight-loss jabs

By Philippa Roxby

1. People who carry variations in two genes linked to appetite and digestion can lose more
2. weight when taking drugs to treat obesity, research suggests. The findings, outlined in the Nature
3. journal, could explain why some people lose far more weight than others and why some have
4. particularly bad side-effects, such as nausea and vomiting, while taking them.
5. The popular medicines remove feelings of hunger by acting like a natural gut hormone that
6. makes users feel full. While genes may play a relatively modest role in influencing how well these
7. drugs work, experts say other factors such as your sex, age and even where you come from can
8. also have an impact.
9. It is thought at least 1.6 million people in the UK have tried weight-loss drugs in the past
10. year, and that number is expected to rise. Most are being bought privately through online
11. pharmacies.
12. The percentage of body weight lost when taking weight-loss medication can vary widely.
13. In this study, based on the experiences of 15,000 people taking weight-loss medications, they
14. lost an average of 11.7% of their body weight during roughly eight months of treatment. Some
15. lost 30% of their weight, while others lost little or nothing.
16. All of those 15,000 had previously signed up for gene-testing by the company 23andMe,
17. which used that data to chart the experiences of people taking weight-loss drugs. By analysing
18. millions of their genetic variants, the researchers found a pattern suggesting a link between
19. some variants and the effectiveness of the drugs.
20. Professor Ruth Loos, from the University of Copenhagen, who wrote about the research in
21. Nature journal, said: “The study found a genetic variant associated with weight loss, which was
22. also associated with nausea”.
23. “People lose more weight if they have this variant.” And that extra lost weight amounted to
24. about 0.76 kg (1.6 lbs) on average—but those people who carry two copies of the genes can
25. double the amount they lose.
26. The variant is high in people with European ancestry—64% carry one copy, while 16% of
27. people carry two copies, she says. That compares to 7% of African Americans who carry a copy
28. of the gene. “If you carry the variant, you will lose more weight,” says Prof Loos.
29. The study found another variant that could be responsible for people experiencing
30. side-effects such as nausea and vomiting when taking tirzepatide. And that could mean up to
31. 1% of people taking the drug will have really bad vomiting—nearly 15 times worse than normal.
32. Prof Loos said the genetic effect, while modest, “is similar to other factors—and not trivial”.
33. However, she said the findings need to be reproduced in other studies and, to date, that has not
34. happened.
35. For Dr Marie Spreckley, from the University of Cambridge, “genetics is only one part of a
36. much more complex picture”. In the long term, taking genetic and other information together
37. could help guide the choice of which weight-loss drug to use, based on the potential
38. benefits—something called “precision medicine”.
39. But we are not there yet, said Professor Naveed Sattar, metabolic health expert from the
40. University of Glasgow. “Overall, these findings are scientifically interesting, but they are a long
41. way from changing clinical practice,” he said. “What we really need now is more robust trial data
42. to better define the balance of benefits and harms with these and many other emerging newer
43. therapies”.

(Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn5317dkqnxo – text specially adapted for this test).

New light shed on who benefits most from weight-loss jabs

By Philippa Roxby

1. People who carry variations in two genes linked to appetite and digestion can lose more
2. weight when taking drugs to treat obesity, research suggests. The findings, outlined in the Nature
3. journal, could explain why some people lose far more weight than others and why some have
4. particularly bad side-effects, such as nausea and vomiting, while taking them.
5. The popular medicines remove feelings of hunger by acting like a natural gut hormone that
6. makes users feel full. While genes may play a relatively modest role in influencing how well these
7. drugs work, experts say other factors such as your sex, age and even where you come from can
8. also have an impact.
9. It is thought at least 1.6 million people in the UK have tried weight-loss drugs in the past
10. year, and that number is expected to rise. Most are being bought privately through online
11. pharmacies.
12. The percentage of body weight lost when taking weight-loss medication can vary widely.
13. In this study, based on the experiences of 15,000 people taking weight-loss medications, they
14. lost an average of 11.7% of their body weight during roughly eight months of treatment. Some
15. lost 30% of their weight, while others lost little or nothing.
16. All of those 15,000 had previously signed up for gene-testing by the company 23andMe,
17. which used that data to chart the experiences of people taking weight-loss drugs. By analysing
18. millions of their genetic variants, the researchers found a pattern suggesting a link between
19. some variants and the effectiveness of the drugs.
20. Professor Ruth Loos, from the University of Copenhagen, who wrote about the research in
21. Nature journal, said: “The study found a genetic variant associated with weight loss, which was
22. also associated with nausea”.
23. “People lose more weight if they have this variant.” And that extra lost weight amounted to
24. about 0.76 kg (1.6 lbs) on average—but those people who carry two copies of the genes can
25. double the amount they lose.
26. The variant is high in people with European ancestry—64% carry one copy, while 16% of
27. people carry two copies, she says. That compares to 7% of African Americans who carry a copy
28. of the gene. “If you carry the variant, you will lose more weight,” says Prof Loos.
29. The study found another variant that could be responsible for people experiencing
30. side-effects such as nausea and vomiting when taking tirzepatide. And that could mean up to
31. 1% of people taking the drug will have really bad vomiting—nearly 15 times worse than normal.
32. Prof Loos said the genetic effect, while modest, “is similar to other factors—and not trivial”.
33. However, she said the findings need to be reproduced in other studies and, to date, that has not
34. happened.
35. For Dr Marie Spreckley, from the University of Cambridge, “genetics is only one part of a
36. much more complex picture”. In the long term, taking genetic and other information together
37. could help guide the choice of which weight-loss drug to use, based on the potential
38. benefits—something called “precision medicine”.
39. But we are not there yet, said Professor Naveed Sattar, metabolic health expert from the
40. University of Glasgow. “Overall, these findings are scientifically interesting, but they are a long
41. way from changing clinical practice,” he said. “What we really need now is more robust trial data
42. to better define the balance of benefits and harms with these and many other emerging newer
43. therapies”.

(Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn5317dkqnxo – text specially adapted for this test).

New light shed on who benefits most from weight-loss jabs

By Philippa Roxby

1. People who carry variations in two genes linked to appetite and digestion can lose more
2. weight when taking drugs to treat obesity, research suggests. The findings, outlined in the Nature
3. journal, could explain why some people lose far more weight than others and why some have
4. particularly bad side-effects, such as nausea and vomiting, while taking them.
5. The popular medicines remove feelings of hunger by acting like a natural gut hormone that
6. makes users feel full. While genes may play a relatively modest role in influencing how well these
7. drugs work, experts say other factors such as your sex, age and even where you come from can
8. also have an impact.
9. It is thought at least 1.6 million people in the UK have tried weight-loss drugs in the past
10. year, and that number is expected to rise. Most are being bought privately through online
11. pharmacies.
12. The percentage of body weight lost when taking weight-loss medication can vary widely.
13. In this study, based on the experiences of 15,000 people taking weight-loss medications, they
14. lost an average of 11.7% of their body weight during roughly eight months of treatment. Some
15. lost 30% of their weight, while others lost little or nothing.
16. All of those 15,000 had previously signed up for gene-testing by the company 23andMe,
17. which used that data to chart the experiences of people taking weight-loss drugs. By analysing
18. millions of their genetic variants, the researchers found a pattern suggesting a link between
19. some variants and the effectiveness of the drugs.
20. Professor Ruth Loos, from the University of Copenhagen, who wrote about the research in
21. Nature journal, said: “The study found a genetic variant associated with weight loss, which was
22. also associated with nausea”.
23. “People lose more weight if they have this variant.” And that extra lost weight amounted to
24. about 0.76 kg (1.6 lbs) on average—but those people who carry two copies of the genes can
25. double the amount they lose.
26. The variant is high in people with European ancestry—64% carry one copy, while 16% of
27. people carry two copies, she says. That compares to 7% of African Americans who carry a copy
28. of the gene. “If you carry the variant, you will lose more weight,” says Prof Loos.
29. The study found another variant that could be responsible for people experiencing
30. side-effects such as nausea and vomiting when taking tirzepatide. And that could mean up to
31. 1% of people taking the drug will have really bad vomiting—nearly 15 times worse than normal.
32. Prof Loos said the genetic effect, while modest, “is similar to other factors—and not trivial”.
33. However, she said the findings need to be reproduced in other studies and, to date, that has not
34. happened.
35. For Dr Marie Spreckley, from the University of Cambridge, “genetics is only one part of a
36. much more complex picture”. In the long term, taking genetic and other information together
37. could help guide the choice of which weight-loss drug to use, based on the potential
38. benefits—something called “precision medicine”.
39. But we are not there yet, said Professor Naveed Sattar, metabolic health expert from the
40. University of Glasgow. “Overall, these findings are scientifically interesting, but they are a long
41. way from changing clinical practice,” he said. “What we really need now is more robust trial data
42. to better define the balance of benefits and harms with these and many other emerging newer
43. therapies”.

(Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn5317dkqnxo – text specially adapted for this test).

New light shed on who benefits most from weight-loss jabs

By Philippa Roxby

1. People who carry variations in two genes linked to appetite and digestion can lose more
2. weight when taking drugs to treat obesity, research suggests. The findings, outlined in the Nature
3. journal, could explain why some people lose far more weight than others and why some have
4. particularly bad side-effects, such as nausea and vomiting, while taking them.
5. The popular medicines remove feelings of hunger by acting like a natural gut hormone that
6. makes users feel full. While genes may play a relatively modest role in influencing how well these
7. drugs work, experts say other factors such as your sex, age and even where you come from can
8. also have an impact.
9. It is thought at least 1.6 million people in the UK have tried weight-loss drugs in the past
10. year, and that number is expected to rise. Most are being bought privately through online
11. pharmacies.
12. The percentage of body weight lost when taking weight-loss medication can vary widely.
13. In this study, based on the experiences of 15,000 people taking weight-loss medications, they
14. lost an average of 11.7% of their body weight during roughly eight months of treatment. Some
15. lost 30% of their weight, while others lost little or nothing.
16. All of those 15,000 had previously signed up for gene-testing by the company 23andMe,
17. which used that data to chart the experiences of people taking weight-loss drugs. By analysing
18. millions of their genetic variants, the researchers found a pattern suggesting a link between
19. some variants and the effectiveness of the drugs.
20. Professor Ruth Loos, from the University of Copenhagen, who wrote about the research in
21. Nature journal, said: “The study found a genetic variant associated with weight loss, which was
22. also associated with nausea”.
23. “People lose more weight if they have this variant.” And that extra lost weight amounted to
24. about 0.76 kg (1.6 lbs) on average—but those people who carry two copies of the genes can
25. double the amount they lose.
26. The variant is high in people with European ancestry—64% carry one copy, while 16% of
27. people carry two copies, she says. That compares to 7% of African Americans who carry a copy
28. of the gene. “If you carry the variant, you will lose more weight,” says Prof Loos.
29. The study found another variant that could be responsible for people experiencing
30. side-effects such as nausea and vomiting when taking tirzepatide. And that could mean up to
31. 1% of people taking the drug will have really bad vomiting—nearly 15 times worse than normal.
32. Prof Loos said the genetic effect, while modest, “is similar to other factors—and not trivial”.
33. However, she said the findings need to be reproduced in other studies and, to date, that has not
34. happened.
35. For Dr Marie Spreckley, from the University of Cambridge, “genetics is only one part of a
36. much more complex picture”. In the long term, taking genetic and other information together
37. could help guide the choice of which weight-loss drug to use, based on the potential
38. benefits—something called “precision medicine”.
39. But we are not there yet, said Professor Naveed Sattar, metabolic health expert from the
40. University of Glasgow. “Overall, these findings are scientifically interesting, but they are a long
41. way from changing clinical practice,” he said. “What we really need now is more robust trial data
42. to better define the balance of benefits and harms with these and many other emerging newer
43. therapies”.

(Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn5317dkqnxo – text specially adapted for this test).

New light shed on who benefits most from weight-loss jabs

By Philippa Roxby

1. People who carry variations in two genes linked to appetite and digestion can lose more
2. weight when taking drugs to treat obesity, research suggests. The findings, outlined in the Nature
3. journal, could explain why some people lose far more weight than others and why some have
4. particularly bad side-effects, such as nausea and vomiting, while taking them.
5. The popular medicines remove feelings of hunger by acting like a natural gut hormone that
6. makes users feel full. While genes may play a relatively modest role in influencing how well these
7. drugs work, experts say other factors such as your sex, age and even where you come from can
8. also have an impact.
9. It is thought at least 1.6 million people in the UK have tried weight-loss drugs in the past
10. year, and that number is expected to rise. Most are being bought privately through online
11. pharmacies.
12. The percentage of body weight lost when taking weight-loss medication can vary widely.
13. In this study, based on the experiences of 15,000 people taking weight-loss medications, they
14. lost an average of 11.7% of their body weight during roughly eight months of treatment. Some
15. lost 30% of their weight, while others lost little or nothing.
16. All of those 15,000 had previously signed up for gene-testing by the company 23andMe,
17. which used that data to chart the experiences of people taking weight-loss drugs. By analysing
18. millions of their genetic variants, the researchers found a pattern suggesting a link between
19. some variants and the effectiveness of the drugs.
20. Professor Ruth Loos, from the University of Copenhagen, who wrote about the research in
21. Nature journal, said: “The study found a genetic variant associated with weight loss, which was
22. also associated with nausea”.
23. “People lose more weight if they have this variant.” And that extra lost weight amounted to
24. about 0.76 kg (1.6 lbs) on average—but those people who carry two copies of the genes can
25. double the amount they lose.
26. The variant is high in people with European ancestry—64% carry one copy, while 16% of
27. people carry two copies, she says. That compares to 7% of African Americans who carry a copy
28. of the gene. “If you carry the variant, you will lose more weight,” says Prof Loos.
29. The study found another variant that could be responsible for people experiencing
30. side-effects such as nausea and vomiting when taking tirzepatide. And that could mean up to
31. 1% of people taking the drug will have really bad vomiting—nearly 15 times worse than normal.
32. Prof Loos said the genetic effect, while modest, “is similar to other factors—and not trivial”.
33. However, she said the findings need to be reproduced in other studies and, to date, that has not
34. happened.
35. For Dr Marie Spreckley, from the University of Cambridge, “genetics is only one part of a
36. much more complex picture”. In the long term, taking genetic and other information together
37. could help guide the choice of which weight-loss drug to use, based on the potential
38. benefits—something called “precision medicine”.
39. But we are not there yet, said Professor Naveed Sattar, metabolic health expert from the
40. University of Glasgow. “Overall, these findings are scientifically interesting, but they are a long
41. way from changing clinical practice,” he said. “What we really need now is more robust trial data
42. to better define the balance of benefits and harms with these and many other emerging newer
43. therapies”.

(Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn5317dkqnxo – text specially adapted for this test).

New light shed on who benefits most from weight-loss jabs

By Philippa Roxby

1. People who carry variations in two genes linked to appetite and digestion can lose more
2. weight when taking drugs to treat obesity, research suggests. The findings, outlined in the Nature
3. journal, could explain why some people lose far more weight than others and why some have
4. particularly bad side-effects, such as nausea and vomiting, while taking them.
5. The popular medicines remove feelings of hunger by acting like a natural gut hormone that
6. makes users feel full. While genes may play a relatively modest role in influencing how well these
7. drugs work, experts say other factors such as your sex, age and even where you come from can
8. also have an impact.
9. It is thought at least 1.6 million people in the UK have tried weight-loss drugs in the past
10. year, and that number is expected to rise. Most are being bought privately through online
11. pharmacies.
12. The percentage of body weight lost when taking weight-loss medication can vary widely.
13. In this study, based on the experiences of 15,000 people taking weight-loss medications, they
14. lost an average of 11.7% of their body weight during roughly eight months of treatment. Some
15. lost 30% of their weight, while others lost little or nothing.
16. All of those 15,000 had previously signed up for gene-testing by the company 23andMe,
17. which used that data to chart the experiences of people taking weight-loss drugs. By analysing
18. millions of their genetic variants, the researchers found a pattern suggesting a link between
19. some variants and the effectiveness of the drugs.
20. Professor Ruth Loos, from the University of Copenhagen, who wrote about the research in
21. Nature journal, said: “The study found a genetic variant associated with weight loss, which was
22. also associated with nausea”.
23. “People lose more weight if they have this variant.” And that extra lost weight amounted to
24. about 0.76 kg (1.6 lbs) on average—but those people who carry two copies of the genes can
25. double the amount they lose.
26. The variant is high in people with European ancestry—64% carry one copy, while 16% of
27. people carry two copies, she says. That compares to 7% of African Americans who carry a copy
28. of the gene. “If you carry the variant, you will lose more weight,” says Prof Loos.
29. The study found another variant that could be responsible for people experiencing
30. side-effects such as nausea and vomiting when taking tirzepatide. And that could mean up to
31. 1% of people taking the drug will have really bad vomiting—nearly 15 times worse than normal.
32. Prof Loos said the genetic effect, while modest, “is similar to other factors—and not trivial”.
33. However, she said the findings need to be reproduced in other studies and, to date, that has not
34. happened.
35. For Dr Marie Spreckley, from the University of Cambridge, “genetics is only one part of a
36. much more complex picture”. In the long term, taking genetic and other information together
37. could help guide the choice of which weight-loss drug to use, based on the potential
38. benefits—something called “precision medicine”.
39. But we are not there yet, said Professor Naveed Sattar, metabolic health expert from the
40. University of Glasgow. “Overall, these findings are scientifically interesting, but they are a long
41. way from changing clinical practice,” he said. “What we really need now is more robust trial data
42. to better define the balance of benefits and harms with these and many other emerging newer
43. therapies”.

(Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn5317dkqnxo – text specially adapted for this test).

New light shed on who benefits most from weight-loss jabs

By Philippa Roxby

1. People who carry variations in two genes linked to appetite and digestion can lose more
2. weight when taking drugs to treat obesity, research suggests. The findings, outlined in the Nature
3. journal, could explain why some people lose far more weight than others and why some have
4. particularly bad side-effects, such as nausea and vomiting, while taking them.
5. The popular medicines remove feelings of hunger by acting like a natural gut hormone that
6. makes users feel full. While genes may play a relatively modest role in influencing how well these
7. drugs work, experts say other factors such as your sex, age and even where you come from can
8. also have an impact.
9. It is thought at least 1.6 million people in the UK have tried weight-loss drugs in the past
10. year, and that number is expected to rise. Most are being bought privately through online
11. pharmacies.
12. The percentage of body weight lost when taking weight-loss medication can vary widely.
13. In this study, based on the experiences of 15,000 people taking weight-loss medications, they
14. lost an average of 11.7% of their body weight during roughly eight months of treatment. Some
15. lost 30% of their weight, while others lost little or nothing.
16. All of those 15,000 had previously signed up for gene-testing by the company 23andMe,
17. which used that data to chart the experiences of people taking weight-loss drugs. By analysing
18. millions of their genetic variants, the researchers found a pattern suggesting a link between
19. some variants and the effectiveness of the drugs.
20. Professor Ruth Loos, from the University of Copenhagen, who wrote about the research in
21. Nature journal, said: “The study found a genetic variant associated with weight loss, which was
22. also associated with nausea”.
23. “People lose more weight if they have this variant.” And that extra lost weight amounted to
24. about 0.76 kg (1.6 lbs) on average—but those people who carry two copies of the genes can
25. double the amount they lose.
26. The variant is high in people with European ancestry—64% carry one copy, while 16% of
27. people carry two copies, she says. That compares to 7% of African Americans who carry a copy
28. of the gene. “If you carry the variant, you will lose more weight,” says Prof Loos.
29. The study found another variant that could be responsible for people experiencing
30. side-effects such as nausea and vomiting when taking tirzepatide. And that could mean up to
31. 1% of people taking the drug will have really bad vomiting—nearly 15 times worse than normal.
32. Prof Loos said the genetic effect, while modest, “is similar to other factors—and not trivial”.
33. However, she said the findings need to be reproduced in other studies and, to date, that has not
34. happened.
35. For Dr Marie Spreckley, from the University of Cambridge, “genetics is only one part of a
36. much more complex picture”. In the long term, taking genetic and other information together
37. could help guide the choice of which weight-loss drug to use, based on the potential
38. benefits—something called “precision medicine”.
39. But we are not there yet, said Professor Naveed Sattar, metabolic health expert from the
40. University of Glasgow. “Overall, these findings are scientifically interesting, but they are a long
41. way from changing clinical practice,” he said. “What we really need now is more robust trial data
42. to better define the balance of benefits and harms with these and many other emerging newer
43. therapies”.

(Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn5317dkqnxo – text specially adapted for this test).