Wes Streeting defends plan without cost weight-loss jabs for fats jobless
Giving overweight unemployed people weight-loss drugs could be ‘game-changing’ for the public’s health and its finances, Wes Streeting said today.
The Health and Social Care Secretary defended the plan to give out Ozempic and other drugs for free to help solve the UK’s workforce crisis.
He said that there was already evidence to suggest that the drug, first used to treat diabetes, would also cut cardiovascular disease, when used alongside exercise and healthy eating.
And he used a BBC interview to to lash out at ‘dystopian’ online conspiracy theories that the proposal would see the unemployed injected with the drugs without their consent.
Senior Tory shadow minister Kevin Hollinrake this morning criticised what he said was a ‘nanny state’ proposal.
Mr Streeting told Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: ‘They are not the only solution and I don’t want to create a dependency culture.
‘But I’m also not interested in some dystopian future where I wander around involuntarily jabbing unemployed people who are overweight. That is not the agenda.
‘Actually I think we have got the opposite challenge … demand at the moment will be greater than we are able to meet.
The Health and Social Care Secretary defended the plan to give out Ozempic for free to help solve the UK’s workforce crisis.
Ozempic and its sister drug Wegovy work by triggering the body to bind to a receptor called the glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), a protein that triggers the release of hormones in the brain which keep the stomach full and tell the body to stop eating and avoid cravings
NHS-backed data source OpenPrescribing shows soaring prescriptions for semaglutide, the drug in Ozempic and Wegovy
‘So that is the challenge we have got that this could be game-changing and if we can throw the trends we are seeing in obesity into reverse that is better for the health of the nation and for the health of the nation’s finances.’
Sir Keir Starmer has backed the idea, insisting it could help ease demands on the NHS and boost the economy.
But the news comes despite dire warnings that some 3,000 Brits have fallen ill so far this year after taking either Ozempic and Wegovy.
Senior Tory shadow minister Kevin Hollinrake this morning criticised what he said was a ‘nanny state’ proposal.
The Department of Health and Social Care and Department for Science, Innovation and Technology will work with industry to establish how the jabs could reduce demand for healthcare and get people back to work.
It comes as doctors prepare for the mass roll out of weight-loss jabs on the NHS and follows widespread reports of global shortages.
Last week pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly, which makes the weight loss drug Mounjaro, signed a memorandum of understanding with the Government, which will see them work together to improve care for people living with obesity.
The deal, announced at the International Investment Summit in London, will involve the testing and development of new weight-loss jabs and smartphone apps and moves to create a manufacturing base in the UK.
A five-year study will also see Eli Lilly evaluate the real-world effectiveness of Mounjaro, in collaboration with the University of Manchester.
It will specifically quantify the medicine’s long-term effects on obesity, diabetes incidence and weight-related complications, as well as its impacts on employment, sick days and quality of life.
The evidence generated will help inform how the NHS treats obesity, the Government said.
