“Around a quarter of a million people living with obesity will be offered the weight loss drug tirzepatide” – also known as Mounjaro – “over the next three years”, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) yesterday (December 5) announced.
NICE “final draft guidance” recommended that the drug be offered “alongside a reduced-calorie diet and increased physical activity” to people with a body mass index (BMI) of more than 35 and “at least one weight-related illness”.
Read more: NHSE proposes offering Mounjaro to nearly 250,000 people over three years
As this eligibility covers “around 3.4 million [patients] in England”, “initially, only those with the highest clinical need will be prioritised to receive the medication”, it added.
“In total, around 220,000 people are expected to benefit in this initial three-year rollout period,” NICE said.
With weekly injections priced at £122 for the maximum dose, “it is estimated that the medicine and associated wraparound care services will cost the NHS in England around £317.2m per year by the third year of implementation”, it added.
12-year roll out
The draft guidance follows “NHS England’s [NHSE] request to roll out the medication over 12 years”, NICE said.
“If no appeals are lodged during the next two weeks, NICE expects to publish final guidance on December 23”, it added.
Read more: Mum landed in hospital after taking Facebook ad Mounjaro
“The first NHS patients will then be able to start receiving the medicine after 90 days if they are already being looked after in specialist weight management services, or 180 days if they have the highest clinical priority,” it said.
It added that NHSE “will develop a plan detailing which other groups of patients will be offered tirzepatide in the next three years”.
NICE “will review the situation again within three years and provide further advice on how the rollout of this medicine can be managed”, chief medical officer Professor Jonathan Benger said.
Read more: Wegovy: Ten deaths linked to weight loss injections, says MHRA
He added that “the world will look very different in three years which is why we’ve taken the unprecedented decision to review the way this medicine is delivered to patients then”.
But he stressed that “many people will have to wait” and that “tirzepatide is not for everybody”.
“We have had to make this difficult decision in order to protect other vital NHS services and also to test ways of delivering this new generation of weight loss medications,” he added.
First generic GLP-1?
Meanwhile, the British Generic Manufacturers Association (BGMA) yesterday said that the patent protection on liraglutide, “marketed under the brand names Victoza and Saxenda” by manufacturer Novo Nordisk, “ended in the UK” last month.
“This is a significant milestone as it is the first genericisation of a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) weight loss medicine in the UK and offers enormous potential opportunity for the NHS,” it added.
Read more: Weight loss: Superdrug expands online Mounjaro service to high street
However, it said that it is “not clear” how many companies will launch generic versions of the drug immediately and it is “therefore harder to predict whether large price erosions will occur straight away”.
And it stressed that “the delivery of weight loss medicines as an NHS service is likely to create more GP consultations and administration, which will need planning for”.
Read more: Make superintendents ‘responsible’ for stricter Wegovy safeguards, says GPhC
“The government and the NHS need to be clear in their communications with patients that these medicines are to be taken as part of a broader focus on improved diet and increased exercise,” it added.
“The medicines alone will not deliver lasting and sustainable weight loss,” it said.
It comes as C+D last month learned that a 36-year-old mum of three “spent the night” in hospital after taking Mounjaro purchased from online pharmacy Curate Health after seeing a Facebook ad from the company.
Read more: ‘It terrifies me’: Girl landed in A&E after buying Wegovy from Boots
And the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) also last month revealed that it had received some 10 reports of deaths linked to weight loss injections.
It came after C+D exclusively reported in June that a “young girl” was rushed to A&E for urgent treatment after presenting with life threatening symptoms after taking weight loss GLP-1RA drug Wegovy that she had obtained through Boots Online Doctor.
