Give the Unemployed Weight-Loss Drugs

The British government believes weight-loss drugs could play a role in its push to reduce the number of long-term unemployed people. The government says a $365 million investment from Eli Lilly will include a “major real-world study” on the effectiveness of tirzepatide, also known as Mounjaro, reports Reuters. The five-year study will track “health-related quality of life and changes in participants’ employment status and sick days from work,” according to the National Health Service’s Health Innovation Center. Thousands of people in the Manchester area will be given the diabetes drug, an Ozempic competitor that has been described as “like a medical gastric bypass.”

Prime Minister Keir Starmer told the BBC that weight-loss injections for unemployed people living with obesity could be “very important” for public health—and the country’s economy. He said the drug “will be very helpful to people who want to lose weight, need to lose weight, very important for the economy so people can get back into work.” Health secretary Wes Streeting wrote in the Telegraph that the country’s “widening waistbands” are costing the NHS upward of $14 billion a year—even more than smoking. “For many people,” Streeting wrote, “these weight-loss jabs will be life-changing, help them get back to work, and ease the demands on our NHS.”

Streeting warned, however, that the NHS “can’t be expected to always pick up the tab for unhealthy lifestyles.” Earlier this month, the British government said that in a “phased launch,” tirzepatide would be given to around 250,000 people with obesity-related health issues over the next three years, the New York Times reports. The Guardian reports that Dolly van Tulleken warned that there could be “some serious ethical, financial, and efficacy considerations” if the government decides to measure people “based on their potential economic value, rather than primarily based on their needs and their health needs.” (More obesity stories.)

No Byline Policy

Editorial Guidelines

Corrections Policy

Source