“As a country, we’re eating more, eating less healthily and exercising less. The costs to the individual are clear – a less healthy and shorter life,” he wrote.
“Our widening waistbands are also placing a significant burden on our health service, costing the NHS £11 billion 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.”
Excess weight is linked to a host of deadly health conditions, including heart disease, cancer and type 2 diabetes. About 40% of the NHS budget is spent on preventable health conditions, a figure forecast to reach 60% by 2040.
Last month, forecasts suggested the number of workers on long-term sick leave would increase more than 50% in five years.
The new trial aims to gather the first real-world evidence of the effects of the drug tirzepatide – sold under the brand name Mounjaro for weight loss and treatment of type 2 diabetes – on non-clinical outcomes such as the economy.
The drug, made by Lilly, has been shown in clinical trials to be more effective than semaglutide – marketed as Wegovy for weight loss and as Ozempic for diabetes – in helping patients lose weight.
Tirzepatide has been called the “King Kong” of slimming jabs because it is the most effective on the market. In trials, patients lost an average of 21% of their body weight in 36 weeks, with monthly costs of about £120.
Up to 3000 obese patients – a mixture of those in and out of work, and on sickness leave – will be recruited for a five-year study that will explore whether the medication boosts productivity and could bring more people back to the workplace.
The Health Secretary said the injections should not be seen as an alternative to overhauling unhealthy lifestyles, but suggests they could have a major role in tackling the worklessness crisis. Overall, 9.3 million people are economically inactive, according to the latest worklessness figures.
“The long-term benefits of these drugs could be monumental in our approach to tackling obesity. For many people, these jabs will be life-changing, help them get back to work and ease the demands on our NHS,” he wrote.
“But along with the rights to access these new drugs, there must remain a responsibility on us all to take healthy living more seriously. The NHS can’t be expected to always pick up the tab.”
He highlighted plans to ban junk-food adverts targeted at children and reform the NHS to focus more on prevention of ill-health.
Ministers are also keen to speed up access to the drugs available on the health service. Such jabs are available to only those who have been referred to specialist clinics, meaning the vast majority of prescriptions are being purchased privately.
The new trial, in Greater Manchester, will examine whether being put on the jabs reduced workplace absence levels, the likelihood of being in work and the amount of dependence on NHS services compared with the wider population.
The study, by Health Innovation Manchester and Lilly, forms part of a collaboration between the government and the pharmaceutical giant. Other strands will include new ways of rolling out obesity treatment such as offering digital coaching, and the opening of new labs to boost the life sciences sector.
Figures suggest obesity costs $3.2 billion to the economy of Greater Manchester, about half of which relates to productivity losses.
This year, a major study found weight-loss jabs had a significant impact on several major health conditions, cutting the risk of death from heart attacks and strokes by one-fifth.
Last week, the Telegraph revealed Britain has never been fatter, with the average middle-aged man now weighing 89kgt, while a woman of the same age typically weighs 76kg. The figures have risen about 6kg since the 1990s.
Health officials recently announced the rollout of weight-loss jabs across the NHS. The phased rollout would have tirzepatide rolled out to 250,000 people in the next three years, starting with those who are morbidly obese, and reaching 1.6 million people over 12 years.
David A. Ricks, the chairman and chief executive of Lilly, said: “We welcome this opportunity to partner with the UK government on tackling and preventing disease, and accelerating innovation to advance care delivery models.”
NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard said: “Obesity is one of the biggest public health issues we face, and we know weight-loss drugs will be a game-changer, alongside earlier prevention strategies, in supporting many more people to lose weight and reduce their risk of killer conditions like diabetes, heart attack and stroke.”
