Millions of overweight unemployed Brits could be offered fat-busting jabs on the NHS in a Government drive to get them back to work, it was announced this week.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting is planning to offer the jobless drugs to combat the range of obesity related maladies that force many to take long-term sick leave.
The idea has the backing of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer who has insisted it could help ease costs to the taxpayer of treating excess flab and boost the economy.
However the medications include Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro are already available on the NHS to some patients.
As long as they meet a strict set of criteria, a select few can avoid paying for pricy £200-a-month private prescriptions.
Millions of obese unemployed Brits could be offered fat-busting jabs in a Government plan to get them back to work
Currently patients can only get the drug Wegovy for weight-loss on the NHS.
Like the more famous Ozempic, it contains the drug semaglutide — and has been shown in studies to help patients lose around 15 per cent of their bodyweight.
Ozempic is licensed for diabetes treatment and while it can be taken for weight-loss off-label, the NHS doesn’t provide this as it must reserve supplies for patients that need it the most.
Likewise, Mounjaro, which contains the active ingredient tirzepatide, is also currently only available on the NHS for diabetics, although this is likely to change soon.
To get Wegovy on the NHS people must meet one of two criteria.
The first is to have a body-mass-index (BMI) of over 35 which means a person is at the higher end of being obese and at risk of health problems.
Or they can have a BMI higher than 30, as well a weight-related health problem such as high blood pressure or heart disease.
These BMI thresholds shift for people of certain ethnicities based on existing NHS rules for classification of obesity in these groups.
It was today revealed that Health Secretary Wes Streeting is planning to offer jobless Brits free jabs of the drugs like Wegovy, a cousin of Ozempic, and Mounjaro
People of Asian, Chinese, Middle Eastern, Black African or African-Caribbean origin only need a BMI of 32.5 to be eligible for Wegovy on obesity grounds alone.
This drops to a BMI of 27.5 or higher for these groups if they have a pre-existing obesity related health conditions as highlighted above.
In any case, it isn’t as simple as people who meet these criteria going to their GP and getting Wegovy.
The drug is only dished out by the NHS via its specialist weight management service.
People can only access this service via a referral from the likes of their family doctor or other qualified health professional, and even, then they may have to wait weeks or months for an appointment.
Having gone through these hoops the drug isn’t technically free, patients will still need to pay the standard NHS prescription charge in England of £9.90.
But this is far cheaper than getting the drug privately.
Sold under the brands, Wegovy and Mounjaro, as well as the off-label prescriptions of the diabetes drug Ozempic, the controversial plan is that the injections will combat a range of obesity related maladies that force Brits to forsake work
Some people will have the £9.90 waived if they meet certain criteria, similar to the majority of other medications provided by the health service.
These include students aged 18-or-under, the over 60s, being a refugee or an asylum seeker, and people on benefits such as Jobseeker’s Allowance and Universal Credit.
Some groups who don’t pay for prescriptions wouldn’t be offered Wegovy or other fat-busting jabs in the first place, such as pregnant women for example.
In addition to Mounjaro being offered for weight-loss there have been other plans to shift the eligibility criteria.
On the back of studies showing a number of benefits to heart health when taking drugs like Wegovy, drug chiefs outlined plans to offer the drug to Brits with a BMI of just 27, meaning overweight not obese, and existing cardiovascular disease.
This could open the door to millions of more Brits being offered the jabs on the NHS as a preventative drug.
The plans have yet to be signed off however, with NHS spending watchdogs needing to assess if using the drugs in this way is a cost-effective use of taxpayer funds, with a decision expected next summer.
NHS-backed data source OpenPrescribing shows soaring prescriptions for semaglutide, the drug in Ozempic and Wegovy
Cardiovascular disease accounts for about a quarter of all deaths in UK, equivalent to 170,000 deaths a year or 480 each day.
All the fat jabs currently on the market work by mimicking a natural hormone called GLP-1 that makes people feel full, reducing their appetite and helping people lose weight.
While they can help people lose up to quarter of their body weight, the jabs, like any drug, are not without potential side effects.
But the news comes despite dire warnings that some 3,000 Brits have fallen ill so far this year after taking either Ozempic or Wegovy.
Earlier this year, MailOnline revealed that the jabs had even been linked to 20 deaths in Britain.
While such cases are rare other side effects like nausea, constipation, diarrhoea, fatigue, stomach pain, headaches and dizziness are more common.
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
Bizarre symptoms, such as hair loss, have also been reported among some patients.
Even without Labour’s plans to expand prescriptions, the NHS has doled out 1.2million semaglutide doses in 2023, a massive increase on the mere 81,000 dished out in 2019.
It comes as the Government last night confirmed that pharmaceutical giant Lilly will pump £279million into developing new drugs and treatment in the UK.
The news comes in response to Britain’s ever-expanding obesity crisis.
Two in three Brits are classed as overweight or obese and NHS figures show people now weigh about a stone more than 30 years ago.
Obesity is the second most common cause of preventable death after smoking in the UK and costs the health service £11.4billion per year.
Mr Streeting has also said excess flab causes people to take an extra four days off sick on average, whilst some are even forced to stop working entirely.
Fat-busting jabs have become the go-to slimming jab of celebs with famous faces who who have admitted to using them including Oprah Winfrey, Elon Musk, Sharon Osbourne, Chelsea Handler and Robbie Williams.
While a potential ‘gamechanger’ in the battle against obesity, there has been increasing concern about the number of normal weight and underweight patients needing A&E care after taking the jabs in a bid to become ‘beach body ready’.