Hopes soar for cheaper weight-loss pill hitting the UK market

Hopes soar for cheaper weight-loss pill hitting the UK market EXCLUSIVE: Currently an oral form of a ground-breaking weight-loss pill is "under review" in the UK, but it has just been approved in the US. A medical expert has said patients battling obesity could soon have access to a cheaper weight-loss pill which they would take for life. The US Food and Drug Administration has given a worldfirst green light to a tablet version of the obesity-busting drug Wegovy. The oral form of the medication is the first of its kind to receive formal approval from a national regulator. Here in Britain, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said a pill from the Wegovy manufacturer was "under review". Injectable versions of GLP-1 drugs, which mimic a natural hormone that controls appetite and feelings of fullness, have rocketed in popularity in the UK with around 1.6 million adults using them in the past year, said the University College London. But for the estimated nine out of 10 people accessing the drugs privately, injector pens of the medication cost between £100 to £300 depending on the dose. However, medical experts are hopeful the approval of a pill version in the US could pave the way for a cheaper oral form of the drug here which patients can take for life, just like treatments for high blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes. Read more: Fat-jabs save lives and NHS cash - it's a crime not to use them to help people Read more: Health Secretary Wes Streeting 'worried' too many people use fat jabs Prof Dror Dicker, an obesity specialist at Rabin Medical Center in Israel , said: "People don't understand that obesity is a chronic disease. They are surprised we have to take the medication for life. But if we succeed it will reduce mortality, reduce cardiovascular disease, and reduce liver and kidney failure. Obesity is not a choice, it's a disease. As with most diseases, we're not healing them, we're managing them." Prof Dicker added that there were three main groups of people who could benefit from the oral version of the drug. He continued: "We have so many people living with obesity, more than one billion people in very rural countries or rural areas, without the capacity of refrigerating the injecting syringe or the pen, which need to be kept cool. "Now we can reach those rural places that could not be treated with the pen and with the oral option we can really treat those patients. "That is one group, the second group is those patients who have a fear of needles, even though this is a small group, now they have the option of oral medication. "The third group that I think as a physician is those patients that were treated with the syringe, with the pen, and got to the point of reaching a steady weight. Now we can replace the treatment with the once-weekly injection with the oral option." In terms of the cost of...

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