Can drugs like Ozempic really help to getthe economy firing again?

Labour's plan to give the unemployed weight-loss jabs may have unintended consequences, reports William Hosie

- William Hosie

How does Ozempic work? Tricky question. Even scientists can't agree whether the miracle weight-loss drug works its magic through the gut or the brain. Despite its seismic impact on reducing obesity rates (reversing what had been an upward curve in the United States for the first time since 2011) and boosting Danish GDP (manufacturer Novo Nordisk is now the most valuable company in Europe), the drug remains quite poorly understood, as do weight-loss drugs more generally.

Two weeks ago, the Health Secretary announced the UK government would be spending £300 million on weight-loss drug trials with the US company Eli Lilly, to assess whether such medication could help the overweight and unemployed return to work. A plan which, at the outset, assumes people are unemployed because they are overweight and fails to target the cause of the obesity crisis, which costs the NHS £6.5 billion a year as well as £8.9 billion in lost productivity.