New weight-loss jabs could be given to unemployed people to help them get back into work, Wes Streeting has suggested.
The health secretary said “widening waistbands” were placing a burden on the NHS.
The latest generation of weight-loss medicine, such as Ozempic or Mounjaro, could be administered to people in order to get them back into employment, and to ease costs to the health service, he added.
Streeting’s suggestion, in a Telegraph newspaper opinion piece, comes as the government announced a £279m investment from Lilly – the world’s largest pharmaceutical company – on the day the prime minister hosted an international investment summit.
The health secretary wrote: “Our widening waistbands are also placing significant burden on our health service, costing the NHS £11bn a year – even more than smoking. And it’s holding back our economy.
“Illness caused by obesity causes people to take an extra four sick days a year on average, while many others are forced out of work altogether.”
The plans announced at the summit will include real-world trials of weight-loss jabs’ impact on worklessness, according to the Telegraph.
A study by Health Innovation Manchester and Lilly will examine whether being put on the drugs will reduce worklessness and the impact on NHS service use, and will take place in Greater Manchester.
Streeting continued: “The reforms this government will put in place will open the NHS up to work much more closely with life sciences, to develop new, more effective treatments, and put NHS patients at the front of the queue.
“The long-term benefits of these drugs could be monumental in our approach to tackling obesity. For many people, these weight-loss jabs will be life-changing, help them get back to work, and ease the demands on our NHS.”
However, Streeting said individuals will still need to remain responsible for taking “healthy living more seriously”, as the “NHS can’t be expected to always pick up the tab for unhealthy lifestyles”.