Anti-obesity medications: Faster, broader access can drive health and wealth in the UK (Tony Blair Institute for Global Change)

Summary

Obesity is now one of the biggest drivers of ill health in the UK’s working-age population, contributing to economic inactivity, increased NHS costs and deepening health inequality. Yet under the NHS’s current plan for the rollout of anti-obesity medications (AOMs), obesity rates will rise faster than the drugs can be delivered. 

Anti-Obesity Medications: Faster, Broader Access Can Drive Health and Wealth in the UK explains why expanding access to these drugs could save the UK £52 billion by 2050. It's calling for a faster, broader strategy that includes:

• lowering eligibility to adults with a BMI of 27 or more
• making access digital-first
• delivering treatment more equitably through a national prevention programme.

The opportunity is real – and so is the cost of delaying action on one of the UK’s most pressing health and economic challenges. Find out why the government needs to make AOMs available faster – and distribute them more broadly.