NHS Should Offer Mounjaro to Far More People, Say MPs in England
A cross-party Health Committee says the 2028 target of 220,000 patients covers only about 6% of those eligible, and warns that private payment is splitting access by wealth.
By AXY Health Desk ·
Key points
- A cross-party Health Committee says the NHS plan to give Mounjaro free to 220,000 people in 2028 is unambitious and covers only around 6% of eligible patients in England.
- The committee says the lack of NHS access is a key reason more than a million people have been paying privately for weight-loss injections, including Mounjaro and Wegovy.
- It estimates that giving all 2.8 million eligible people Mounjaro immediately would cost the NHS £15.2 billion over five years.
- The MPs say streamlining patient support and learning from private providers' digital methods could reduce costs, and that obesity costs the economy around £75 billion a year.
- The committee wants a crackdown on the black market, a public awareness campaign, and a review of how online advertising for weight-loss drugs is regulated.
Hundreds of thousands more people in England should be able to get the weight-loss injection Mounjaro on the NHS, a cross-party group of MPs has said. The Health Committee described the government's current plan, which would give 220,000 people the jab free on prescription in 2028, as a "woefully small number" and "unambitious".
The committee says that target covers only around 6% of eligible patients. It also says the shortfall is a key reason why more than a million people have been paying privately for weight-loss injections, including Mounjaro and Wegovy. For those people, the cost of a private prescription is the price of getting treatment at all.
The MPs are not only asking for more places. They want the NHS to change how it delivers the drug, cut the cost of running the programme, and act against a growing black market in unlicensed products sold online. Their message is that the current plan is too slow, too small and too dependent on people's ability to pay.
The 220,000 Target and the Gap It Leaves
The figure at the centre of the row is 220,000. That is the number of people the current plan expects to receive Mounjaro free on NHS prescription in 2028. Set against the wider group of eligible patients, it reaches only about 6%.
The gap matters because eligibility is not a small pool. The committee refers to 2.8 million people who are eligible for the drug. If the plan reaches only a sliver of them by 2028, most eligible people will have to wait well beyond that date, pay for treatment themselves, or go without.
It helps to understand what the jab is. Mounjaro contains tirzepatide, a medicine that acts on hormones involved in appetite and blood sugar. Wegovy contains semaglutide, a related medicine. Both are used to treat obesity, which is a long-term condition in which excess body fat puts strain on the heart, the blood vessels and the body's ability to control blood sugar. Obesity is linked to type 2 diabetes, heart disease and joint problems, so a long wait for treatment can mean a longer period of health risk.
For a patient who has been told they are eligible but cannot be offered the drug for years, that delay is not an abstract policy question. It is a question of whether their condition gets worse while they wait.
How Private Payment Is Creating Two Tiers
The committee's most pointed warning is about a two-tier system. In its view, a medicine that reduces appetite is becoming available reliably only to people with the money to pay for it. Those without that money are left waiting, or look for cheaper and less safe options.
This is what makes the private market a problem for the NHS and not just a matter of personal choice. A health service is meant to offer care based on clinical need. If the most dependable route to a drug runs through a credit card, then the question of who gets treated first starts to be answered by income rather than by medicine.
The number of people already paying privately, more than a million according to the committee, shows how large that route has become. It also shows how many people have decided that waiting for the NHS is not an option for them. Some of those people may have had good reasons to pay. Others may have been pushed into it by the lack of NHS places.
The committee's concern is not that private treatment exists. It is that the NHS is not offering enough of the same treatment on the same basis, so that private provision fills a gap the public system was supposed to cover.
The £15.2 Billion Estimate and GP Workload
Cost is the reason given for the slow rollout. The NHS is currently working on a 12-year timetable for Mounjaro. The committee said that timetable is being reviewed, but cost remains the central obstacle.
The committee said it is estimated that if all 2.8 million eligible people were given Mounjaro immediately, the bill would be £15.2 billion over five years. That is a very large sum for a health service already under pressure, and it helps explain why the government has chosen a slower, staged approach.
Part of the expense is not the drug itself but the work around it. The NHS relies heavily on GPs, the family doctors who are usually a patient's first point of contact, to oversee prescribing and monitoring. Each patient needs to be assessed, reviewed and checked over time, and that work falls on practices that are already busy with appointments.
This is where the committee sees the clearest room for savings. The MPs said streamlining the process of support for patients could reduce the bill. They also argued that the case for spending is stronger when set against the overall cost of obesity to the economy, which they estimate at around £75 billion a year.
The logic is simple enough. If treating people earlier reduces the long-term cost of obesity, then a larger upfront spend could make sense over time. The difficulty is that the upfront bill is due now, while the savings are spread across years and across different parts of the health and welfare system.
What the NHS Could Borrow From Private Clinics
The MPs said the NHS must learn from private providers. Many of those companies use digital platforms to carry out some of the work that GPs currently do, such as parts of the assessment and monitoring. For patients, that can mean less time waiting for a face-to-face appointment and more of the process happening through a phone or computer.
The committee's point is about method, not about copying private business. The idea is that some of the tasks currently done by GPs could be handled in other ways, which would free doctors to spend more time on patients who need personal care. That could make a larger programme more affordable without cutting the level of support people need.
There are questions the committee's approach would have to answer. Any digital process would need to be safe, clinically sound and fair to patients who are not comfortable using online tools. The NHS would also have to decide how responsibility is shared between digital services and the clinicians who oversee treatment.
Wegovy is also available on the NHS, but only through specialist weight management services. That limits access further. Rather than being offered the drug through a standard GP visit, patients have to go through a separate service, which can add another layer of waiting and another barrier for people who are already struggling to get help.
Black Market Sales and Online Adverts
The committee also says the lack of NHS availability has pushed people toward the black market. It says some have bought unlicensed weight-loss products online. A licensed medicine has been approved by the relevant regulator for sale, and its contents and dosage are checked. An unlicensed product has not been through that process, so a buyer may have no reliable way to know what it contains or how strong it is.
To address this, the committee wants a crackdown on the black market for weight-loss drugs. It also wants a public awareness campaign to warn people about the dangers of buying these products from unregulated sellers.
The committee has asked for a review of how online advertising is regulated. Adverts for weight-loss products can reach large numbers of people quickly, including people who are searching for an alternative because they cannot get treatment through the NHS. The committee wants to know whether the current rules are strong enough to stop promotion that is misleading or unsafe.
For a patient who cannot get an NHS prescription and cannot afford a private one, the risk is that the search for a cheaper option leads to a product that is not safe. That is why the committee treats the access problem as a safety problem too. Restricting supply on the NHS without tackling the online market could leave a gap that unsafe sellers are ready to fill.
Can the 12-Year Rollout Be Shortened
The central question now is whether the government will change the timetable. The 12-year rollout is under review, and the committee's call for far more people to be treated sooner puts direct pressure on that process.
The committee's case rests on two points. The first is that 220,000 people by 2028 is too small for a group of 2.8 million eligible patients. The second is that the cost of doing nothing is already high, through private payments, black market purchases and the wider economic burden of obesity.
The next test is whether the review produces a faster timetable that also comes with a clear plan for GP workload, monitoring and the streamlined support the MPs describe. Without that plan, the £15.2 billion estimate is likely to remain the main barrier. With it, the NHS could offer a much larger number of people a route to treatment that does not depend on what they can afford.
The committee's demands are specific. It wants more people treated on the NHS, a leaner process to support them, a crackdown on the black market, a public campaign to warn about unlicensed products, and a review of online advertising rules. Each one depends on the others. Expanding access without tackling the black market could leave the most vulnerable patients exposed, and tightening the market without expanding NHS access could leave many people with no safe option at all.
Questions and answers
Why are MPs calling for more people to get Mounjaro on the NHS?
The Health Committee says the current plan to give 220,000 people the drug free on prescription in 2028 is too small. It says that covers only around 6% of eligible people, and that the shortfall is a key reason more than a million have paid privately.
How many people are eligible for Mounjaro on the NHS in England?
The committee refers to 2.8 million eligible people. It estimates that giving all of them the drug immediately would cost the NHS £15.2 billion over five years.
Why is the NHS rollout of Mounjaro taking 12 years?
The NHS is working on a 12-year rollout because of cost, and that timetable is being reviewed. The committee wants a faster route to treatment, supported by a leaner process for patients.
Is Wegovy available on the NHS?
Yes, but only through specialist weight management services rather than a standard prescription. Mounjaro is the drug at the centre of the committee's call for wider access.
Topics: Mounjaro, NHS England, Health Committee, weight-loss jabs, Wegovy, obesity, black market medicines
Sources: BBC Health
https://axynewsglobal.com/article/nhs-should-offer-mounjaro-to-far-more-people-say-mps-in-england