Earlier this month, plans were announced in the UK for a pilot programme to take measures on obesity. This £40m ($50m) pilot programme is set to last two years and entails facilitating access to the most effective obesity drugs on the market via general practitioners and specialist pharmacies in efforts to cut down on patient wait times for these therapies. This measure has been put in place as a result of the estimated £6nn ($7.6bn) financial burden placed on the National Health Service (NHS) on an annual basis by cases of obesity.
The obesity space was worth $2.43bn in 2021 and is projected to reach $37.06bn by 2031, as forecast in GlobalData’s recent Obesity: Seven-Market Drug Forecast and Market Analysis report, which explores marketed and late-stage pipeline pharmacotherapies in the obesity space. Forecasted drugs include Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy, which is set to be a top-selling drug by the end of the forecast period.
Wegovy is a glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonist (GLP-1RA) therapy recently recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) for chronic weight management in patients with obesity whose body mass index (BMI) is 30kg/m² or above, and for patients who are overweight and whose BMI is 27kg/mg² or more with one weight-related comorbidity, including type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, among others. Wegovy provides an improved efficacy and lower frequency of administration compared to other therapies that are currently on the obesity market, requiring administration on a weekly basis, which is of paramount interest for obese patients as many suffer from comorbidities, subjecting them to additional pharmacotherapies. These advantages place Wegovy in a position to be one of the key players in the obesity space; Wegovy is expected to achieve $10.17bn in sales by the end of the forecast period in 2031. Alternative GLP-1RAs that may potentially be used in the study include Eli Lilly’s tirzepatide, a GLP-1R and gastric inhibitory polypeptide receptor (GIPR) dual agonist, which is currently in the late-stage pipeline for obesity.
Key opinion leaders (KOLs) interviewed by GlobalData have previously stressed that despite Wegovy’s notable clinical benefits, the biggest disadvantage of this therapy is that people are unable to receive this treatment; the implementation of the pilot scheme will undoubtedly address this need in the UK by increasing patient access to Wegovy. While historically, the management of obesity in the UK has been a tiered service, whereby tier 1 patients are required to undergo lifestyle changes, then proceed to tier 2, which comprises joining weight loss support groups, and then finally reach tier 3, which would enable prescription of weight loss pharmacotherapy or bariatric surgery, this pilot will bypass tier 1 and 2 measures, enabling immediate access to pharmacotherapy instead.
Another matter that this pilot scheme is set to address is facilitating equal access to weight loss medication across all parts of the UK, an unmet need that was emphasised by KOLs, who stated the need for sufficient clinics to see people, as patients who are more socially deprived may not necessarily access NHS services, and so are often not included in the services.
While facilitating access to GLP-1RAs will be paramount in relieving the obesity crisis, many KOLs agree that pharmacotherapy alone will not suffice in resolving obesity. Obesity is an ongoing, chronic, long-term issue; even if GLP-1RAs effectively reduce weight in patients, adjunct long-term weight management, via lifestyle experts, psychologists, and social care support, is crucial to maintaining weight loss in patients, ensuring that the positive effects of GLP-1RAs are long-lasting and that the GLP-1RA pilot scheme proves to be successful.