Reduce pressure on the public health system and help people “return to work”. Here is what new treatments for obesity could achieve, believes the British government. This is why the latter announced a partnership with the American laboratory Eli Lilly during a summit this Monday in London.
The pharmaceutical giant, creator of one of these ultra-popular treatments, plans to invest 279 million pounds (335 million euros) in the United Kingdom. “This drug will be very useful for people who want to lose weight, who need to lose weight, and very important for the economy so that people can return to work,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in an interview on Tuesday. with the BBC. “We need to reduce pressure on the NHS (National Health Service)”, the public health system in crisis after years of underfinancing, “and this will contribute to it”, he added.
Don’t forget the need to “adopt a healthy lifestyle”
An “innovation accelerator” laboratory will be created near Manchester and will allow the “real-life” impact of Mounjaro, Eli Lilly’s treatment, to be studied for five years. According to the Telegraph, 3,000 people with obesity who are unemployed, temporary workers or on sick leave will be recruited for this study, which will notably assess whether taking this medication allows patients to return to work.
According to Health Minister Wes Streeting, obesity costs the NHS £11 billion each year, “even more than smoking”, causing some people to stop working and others to “take an average of four days additional sick leave per year. He stressed that taking these treatments should not make us forget the need to “adopt a healthy lifestyle”.
26% of English people are obese
Ozempic is the best known of these treatments against obesity. Eli Lilly developed its own tirzepatide molecule and Mounjaro was in short supply almost as soon as it was put on the market in 2022 in the United States. It was authorized in February in the United Kingdom.
According to figures from January 2023, 26% of adults are obese in England and 38% are overweight, one of the highest proportions in Europe. At the end of August 2024, the unemployment rate stood at 4% in the UK, with 1.39 million people aged over 16 out of work. Some 9.26 million people aged 16 to 64 are considered “economically inactive”, that is to say out of the labor market and not looking for work, a figure which has jumped in the United Kingdom with the Covid-19 pandemic.
