‘King Kong’ weight loss jab will be free on the NHS: spending watchdog gives green light to powerful new drug Mounjaro, a year after refusing to approve it

The ‘King Kong’ of weight loss jabs will be made available on the NHS, health chiefs announced today.

According to current guidelines, only people with type 2 diabetes who cannot control the condition are eligible for Mounjaro through the healthcare system.

But draft guidance from the UK drugs watchdog has now recommended expanding its use for weight loss in people with severe obesity.

It comes just a year later the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) said it needed ‘more evidence’ before giving the drug the green light for NHS use.

This move shocked specialists in the treatment of diabetes and obesity at the time, who agreed that the treatment, given in weekly self-injections, is very effective.

Mounjaro, the brand name of the drug tirzepatide, has already been approved for weight loss by US health chiefs.

In February it was also made available privately in Britain, with clinics charging around £40 for a week’s supply.

Research has shown that the drug, made by US pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, can help obese people lose more than 20 percent of their body weight in less than a year and a half.

Under the draft guidelines, NICE has recommended that anyone with a BMI of at least 35 and one weight-related co-morbidity should be eligible for the drug.

Eli Lilly had proposed that it would be available to anyone with a BMI of 30 or higher and at least one weight comorbidity.

But the ‘cost-effectiveness estimates’ were ‘above the range that NICE considers to be an acceptable use of NHS resources’, the watchdog added.

Mounjaro would offer an alternative to Wegovy – or semaglutide – which is also in short supply due to overwhelming demand.

Tirzepatide works by suppressing two appetite-regulating hormones, helping people feel full longer and have fewer food cravings.

The jab should come in a four-dose pen, which will provide a month’s worth of treatment if used once a week, NICE said.

It was previously only available in single doses.

Patients in the US can already get the weight loss jab ‘off-label’ from some doctors, with many sharing their incredible transformation.

One overweight man claimed the drug helped him lose up to 100 pounds (45.4 kg).

Before-and-after photos show the transformation of Matthew Barlow, a 48-year-old health technology executive living in California.

He started taking the drug last November. At the same time, he also changed his diet and lifestyle as recommended.

‘Psychologically speaking, you don’t want to eat. Now I can eat two bites of dessert and be satisfied,” he said.

Meanwhile, a TikTok user called Emily claimed she has lost 63.5kg since she was shocked by the weight loss injections.

“The incredible amount of joy I see in the mirror now is crazy,” she said. ‘I cried to myself in the mirror. Now I feel like one of the cool kids.”

Commenting on NICE’s U-turn, Professor Sir Stephen O’Rahilly, Director of the Department of Metabolic Diseases at the University of Cambridge, said: ‘Given the very positive recent results from large, randomized control trials of this drug and its beneficial effects on a wide range of outcomes, this decision is not surprising.

‘We are clearly in a new era of obesity management, where for the first time we can have access to medications that are effective and, while not without some side effects, largely safe.

‘This class of injectable medicines is currently expensive and poses particular problems for a taxpayer-funded healthcare system such as the NHS.

‘In the longer term, these drugs significantly reduce the risks of developing painful and expensive complications such as type 2 diabetes, heart attacks and kidney failure, but their costs pose an immediate financial challenge at a time when NHS budgets are tight.’

He added: ‘The genie is out of the bottle here. Safe and effective drug treatment for obesity is not going away.

‘We must continue to work to make our environment less obese. But that will take political will and time.’

Meanwhile, Professor Naveed Sattar, honorary consultant and expert in cardiometabolic medicine at the University of Glasgow, said NICE’s updated guidelines were ‘pragmatic’.

He added: ‘I think the guidance seems pragmatic as we have to start somewhere and for now help people who are at greater risk to develop other obesity-related comorbidities more quickly, even though many others at risk will initially are denied.

‘As drug costs fall and evidence grows of additional benefits, BMI thresholds for treatment will fall.

‘However, with so many already living with a BMI above 35, there will be significant work to treat and care for this group of individuals in the NHS.’

But like all medications, Mounjaro is not without side effects.

The MHRA has warned that the drug may affect the effectiveness of the contraceptive pill in obese or overweight female patients.

Other possible side effects include nausea, diarrhea, vomiting – which usually goes away with time – and constipation.

Low blood sugar is also “very common” in patients with diabetes, the agency added.

A study of 900 participants also found that a fifth suffered from nausea and diarrhea, and around one in ten reported vomiting or constipation.

Other people who used the drug outside of clinical trials have reported experiencing hair loss while taking Mounjaro.

A link has also been suggested with an increased risk of cancer from the jab.

The European Medicines Agency said this year that research in rodents has suggested that the artificial hormones packed into tirzepatide could increase the risk of medullary thyroid cancer.