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Wegovy: ‘Game changer’ weight loss injection now available on the NHS

A weight-loss jab described as a “game changer” in the fight against obesity will be available to some NHS patients from Monday, its makers have announced.

Wegovy, which was supposed to be rolled out on the NHS earlier this year, is being given a “controlled and limited launch” due to ongoing supply problems, according to Danish manufacturers Novo Nordisk.

The once-weekly semaglutide injection works by suppressing the appetite through mimicking the hormone glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) that is released after eating. This makes people feel full, meaning they eat less and lose weight. A previous study found that people who are given the drug, which comes as a weekly injection, saw their weight drop by 12 per cent on average after 68 weeks.

The UK’s medicines regulator authorised Wegovy in September 2021 and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) announced in March that the drug could be given to obese patients with at least one condition, such as high blood pressure.

It will now be available in specialist NHS weight management services for people who meet the Nice criteria or privately through a registered healthcare professional.

Novo Nordisk declined to comment on supply figures or how many patients will now be able to access the treatment, but thousands of people are expected to benefit. Through the specialist NHS services, patients will also receive support with diet and exercise measures to follow, through a multi-disciplinary team.

The NHS in England is required to implement Nice recommendations within three months of a product becoming commercially available. However, Wegovy’s launch had been delayed due to soaring demand for weight loss jabs.

Novo Nordisk had been reluctant to announce a date for when Wegovy would become available until it was confident it will be able to meet demand, despite patient groups hoping to get access to it by the end of the year.

A spokesman for the firm said: “We are dedicated to bringing additional treatment options to people living with obesity and share the Government’s ambition to make obesity care accessible where there is high unmet medical need.

“We believe the launch of Wegovy will help provide an additional option to support people living with obesity in the UK and look forward to working with healthcare providers to achieve this.

“As we expect supply to be constrained for the foreseeable future, a proportion of available supply will be allocated for use only within the NHS to allow healthcare professionals to implement NICE guidance.

“We will continue to work with healthcare professionals to help ensure that patients with the highest unmet medical need are prioritised.

“We are closely monitoring Wegovy demand and are working with regulators and providers to ensure people living with obesity can have access to and remain on treatment.”

Making semaglutide only be available through specialist clinics, which tend to be based in hospitals, would limit the number of people accessing it to around 35,000.

In June, Rishi Sunak announced a £40m Government-backed pilot scheme to test whether the weight loss jab could be supplied to tens of thousands of more patients outside hospitals by GPs in a bid to cut NHS waiting lists. However, demand for the drug delayed both its launch on the NHS and the two-year programme indefinitely.

The Prime Minister said using the weight-loss jabs “will be a game changer” by helping to tackle dangerous obesity-related health conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes and cancer, which in turn would reduce pressure on hospitals and “help to deliver on my priority to cut NHS waiting lists”. But the pilots have yet to start and the scheme could be scrapped altogether as Labour refused to commit to the project, i revealed last month.

Obesity costs the NHS in England around £6.5bn a year and is the second biggest preventable cause of cancer. The Health Survey for England 2021 estimates that 25.9 per cent of adults in England are obese and a further 37.9 per cent are overweight but not obese. Obesity is usually defined as having a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or above. BMI between 25 and 30 is classified as “overweight”

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