A new study carried out by the European Congress on Obesity based in Spain suggests that giving weight loss jabs to everyone who is eligible for them could increase the UK economy by £4.5 billion.
In England 26.5% of adults are considered obese and 4.6 million people have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, estimated to cost the UK £100 billion a year in medical treatment, extra facilities and lost productivity.
The study showed that those who started to take semaglutide – more popularly known as ozempic – were able to work an extra five days and perform an extra twelve days of unpaid work such as volunteering and child minding. The authors of the study valued the net gain per person at £1, 127 per person, and multiplying that by the people who would benefit comes to a net gain of approx £4.5 billion.
However, the high costs of the treatments would make it extremely difficult to have a mass roll out, instead only the most in need would qualify for immediate treatment, but there were other benefits of the treatment identified. In another study, the drug was found to cut alcohol consumptions by two thirds in four months, showing it may have potential for the treatment of addictions.
Obviously, there can also be side effects and other down sides to any treatment, but the potential for the economy is interesting.