Weight loss jabs could be as transformative as statins, England’s top doctor has suggested as he pledged that the NHS would go “further, faster” to roll them out. An estimated 1.5 million people are already using the medications and accessing them on the NHS or through private prescriptions.
Professor Sir Stephen Powis, the NHS national medical director, said many of the drugs would come off patent in a few years, at which point they will be available at much lower cost. He added: “This could completely transform access to these innovative treatments.”
Speaking at the NHS ConfedExpo annual conference in Manchester, Sir Stephen noted that the jabs could help ”turn the tide” on rising levels of obesity.
He said: “Around 29% of adults in the UK, three in 10 of us, are living with obesity — it’s a complex condition that can have a huge physical and psychological burden for people living with it.
“These figures have been going in the wrong direction globally for too long now — obesity rates and all the health conditions associated with it — such as diabetes and heart attacks -— are continuing to rise without radical intervention.
“Right now, obesity is estimated to cost the NHS approximately £11.4 billion every year. This financial burden is unsustainable for the NHS and wider economy. We have to turn the tide.”
However, the medic also warned the drugs were “no silver bullet” and stressed that more evidence would need to be collected about their long-term effects.
Speaking during the same event, England’s chief medical officer Sir Chris Whitty said weight loss jabs should not be used as “an excuse” not to help people live healthier lives.
He told delegates: “They are not the get-out-of-jail card that says we don’t have to do the other social things.
“It is simply unacceptable, for example, to be advertising obviously obesogenic foods to young children on the basis that subsequently they might be able to have drugs and then undo the damage, which will otherwise be lifelong.”
