Britain will study whether the use of Eli Lilly’s weight loss drug can get people back into work and help tackle the high rate of long-term sickness that has become a major drag on the economy. Health Minister Wes Streeting predicted the use of the drug – a competitor to Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic – could help transform the health of the nation, after Lilly announced a £279mn ($365.4mn) investment in Britain as part of a fl agship summit hosted by Prime Minister Keir Starmer.The deal included “a major real-world study” on the eff ectiveness of tirzepatide, marketed as Mounjaro in Britain, which could reduce the burden on the staterun National Health Service.Streeting said obesity was costing the NHS £11bn a year and meant people took more sick leave or were forced out of the jobs market altogether. “The long-term benefi ts of these drugs could be monumental in our approach to tackling obesity,” Streeting wrote in an article in the Telegraph newspaper. “For many people, these weight-loss jabs will be life-changing, help them get back to work, and ease the demands on our NHS.”The University of Manchester will co-ordinate the study, which will have up to 3,000 participants, and collect data on “health-related quality of life and changes in participants’ employment status and sick days from work.”Earlier this month, England’s National Health Service outlined a plan to give the drug to nearly a quarter of a million people as part of a three-year plan. Streeting said that while the drug would be a tool to tackle obesity, people would need to make lifestyle changes too so that the health service, already struggling after years of crises, was not put under further strain.
