UK hopes anti-obesity drugs will help people ‘return to work’

The Keir Starmer Labor government has announced a partnership with pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly to test anti-obesity treatments on 3,000 unemployed volunteers.

The British government wants to rely on new generation treatments against obesity to reduce pressure on the public health system and help people “return to work”, after an agreement reached with an American laboratory.

During a summit which took place on Monday in London, the government announced a partnership with the pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, the creator of one of these ultra-popular treatments, which plans to invest 279 million of 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 get back to work,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in an interview this week. Tuesday with the BBC.

“We need to reduce pressure on the NHS,” the public health system in crisis after years of underfunding, “and this will help,” he added.

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 must notably evaluate whether taking this drug allows patients to return to work.

Obesity more costly than smoking

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”.

Ozempic is the best known of these treatments against obesity. Eli Lilly developed its own tirzepatide molecule and Mounjaro was the subject of a shortage 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 United Kingdom, which had 1.39 million people aged over 16 unemployed.

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.