LONDON — U.S. pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly is exploring whether obesity drugs might be used to curb joblessness after signing a serious investment take care of the U.K.
The burden-loss treatment firm and creator of Zepbound announced Monday that it will commit £279 million ($364 million) to assist tackle Britain’s significant health challenges — including obesity.
The “strategic collaboration,” agreed with the U.K.’s Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), got here as a part of a wider £63 billion package of investments announced on the close of the Labour government’s inaugural International Investment Summit on Monday.
The Eli Lilly deal will see the corporate launch a “real-world” study to know how tirzepatide — the GLP-1 treatment behind its Zepbound and Mounjaro drugs — impacts weight reduction, diabetes prevention, and prevention of obesity-related complications, to raised inform the National Health Services’ treatment of obesity.
Inside that, the five-year trial, conducted in collaboration with Health Innovation Manchester, may also explore how weight-loss drugs impact “participants’ employment status and sick days from work,” the corporate said in a press release.
“This collaboration will add to the evidence base on the actual world impact of obesity treatments on the health of individuals with obesity, and can explore a broad range of outcomes including health-related quality of life and impact on individuals’ employment status,” professor Rachel Batterham, senior vp for International Medical Affairs at Lilly, said.
The U.K.’s Health and Social Care Minister Wes Streeting said the partnership was “key to constructing a healthier society, healthier economy, and making the NHS fit for the longer term.”
The U.K. is battling a stubbornly high rate of “economic inactivity,” defined as those neither working nor searching for a job. Almost a 3rd of claims are attributed to long-term sickness, including pre-existing health conditions, similar to obesity, which has been exacerbated by Covid.
Writing in an article within the Telegraph on Monday, Streeting said “widening waistbands” had placed a “significant burden” on the NHS and the economy, and was costing the health service £11 billion a 12 months.
“It’s holding back our economy,” he wrote. “Illness brought on by obesity causes people to take an additional 4 sick days a 12 months on average, while many others are forced out of labor altogether.”
Streeting noted that the jabs might be “monumental” in tackling obesity and getting people back to work, but added that the “NHS cannot be expected to at all times pick up the tab for unhealthy lifestyles.”
CNBC reached out to the DHSC, who said the minister’s comments “fully reflect” the federal government’s position.
The use cases for obesity drugs have been growing over recent months, with several drug regulators expanding GLP-1 drug labels to be used in treating obesity-related comorbidities and other illnesses.
Talking to CNBC last week, Citi pharmaceuticals analyst Peter Verdault said the body of evidence to support increased use of weight-loss drugs “keeps coming.”
Nonetheless, some medical professionals expressed concern over drawing an association between health treatments and economic outcomes.
“[There are] some serious ethical, financial and efficacy considerations with such an approach … Akin to people, or measuring people based on their potential economic value, moderately than based totally on their needs and their health needs,” Dr Dolly van Tulleken, a visiting researcher on the MRC epidemiology unit on the University of Cambridge and specialist in obesity policy, told BBC Radio 4’s Today program on Tuesday.
Eli Lilly’s investment may also see the corporate launch its first “Lilly Gateway Labs” innovation accelerator in Europe to support early-stage life sciences businesses to develop transformative medicines and technologies.
The corporate said it anticipates making a further £279 million of recent investment into the U.K. over the approaching years.
