Weight-loss drugs could become as common as statins, says England's top doctor
Weight-loss jabs could eventually be doled out like statins, England's top doctor has said.
Prof Sir Stephen Powis, medical director of the NHS, said the health service should consider the mass rollout of medication to 'turn the tide' on Britain's obesity crisis.
The NHS has been criticised for tightly rationing the jabs, having drawn up a plan for a 12-year rollout.
GPs in England will start prescribing the injections from this month, but only to those with severe obesity and at least one weight-related health problem. Until now, jabs have only been available via specialist services with long waiting lists.
However, NHS pilot schemes will look at ways to roll them out far more widely, including offering jabs through the post, from online pharmacies.
Statins are one of the most commonly prescribed drugs in the UK, with about eight million people taking them to cut their chance of a heart attack and stroke.
An estimated 1.5 million people are taking weight-loss jabs in the UK, with the vast majority paying for them privately, at around £200 a month.
'Exciting milestone'
Speaking at the NHS ConfedExpo conference in Manchester, Sir Stephen hailed the rollout in GP surgeries as an 'exciting milestone' and said NHS officials are also examining ways to ' broaden access to the drugs '.
Around 29 per cent of adults in the UK are obese.
Sir Stephen said: '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. We have to and will go further, and faster.
'In just a few years from now, some of today's weight-loss drugs will be available at much lower cost. This could completely transform access to these innovative treatments.
'But we will and must be guided by the evidence base and must do this safely and sustainably, in a way that ensures that we are equipped as a health service to deal with the demand.'
'We'll learn how to deploy them better'
Sir Stephen said that the 'exciting new class of medication' would see wider rollout in the same way that statins had been rolled out en masse.
'There will be more drugs coming on the market. There will be different prices for drugs. We will get to generics, which means that prices will fall,' he said.
'We have been through this over statins, and the use of statins is now very different from when they first came out, and I've no doubt that will be the same for these drugs. So it's very exciting.'
The senior doctor said research suggesting they can prevent and treat multiple diseases, including heart and kidney disease, also meant they were like statins.
'It's highly likely that they will become more widespread, the evidence base will increase. We will learn better how to deploy them,' he said.
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