Semaglutide is taken as an injection and is already licensed in 12 – 17 year-olds in the US, and has recently been approved by NICE in the UK for over 18s.
Currently, 23% of 10-11-year-olds in England are obese, with a further 14.3% overweight.
A clinical trial in Birmingham with 180 obese/overweight 12-17-year-olds found that BMI reduced by 16% in 15 months. This led to the Department of Health asking NICE to evaluate the cost and effectiveness of Semaglutide injections for those under 18s, in addition to healthy nutrition and increased physical activity.
Existing NICE guidelines already recommend a weight management programme for overweight children and young people. This should be led by a multi-disciplinary team. The core components focus on diet and healthy habits; physical activity, by reducing the amount of time undertaking sedentary behaviours and behaviour changes of the child and their family.
NICE already recommends Semaglutide as a weight management option to adults, to be taken for a maximum of 2 years with at least one weight co-morbidity. This is based on clinical data that adults who took Semaglutide lost more weight when combined with weight management support versus the support alone, as well as normalising blood glucose levels.
we cannot “drug our way out of the problem” of obesity
Henry Dimbleby, former lead non-executive board member of the department for food environment and rural affairs
Concerns have been raised relating to a lack of long-term effectiveness data and potentially serious side effects of Semaglutide. Researchers found those on the weight-loss drug were 4 times more likely to develop intestinal obstruction, caused by increased intestinal length and villus height.
Henry Dimbleby, a former Government food advisor described the proposed idea to prescribe Semaglutide were “reckless”, telling an event at the Institute for Government that we cannot “drug our way out of the problem” of obesity. This can be supported, as the NHS website states “(exercise) can help prevent and manage more than 20 conditions, such as reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes by 40%”.
The plan to prescribe Semaglutide to under 18s comes after a multimillion-pound campaign by Novo Nordisk which has been promoting the weight-loss drug in the UK. Disclose UK records found they had paid £21.7 million to UK health experts and organisations over 3 years, despite claiming it works in a “transparent and ethical manner”. NICE had also identified multiple breaches of its conflict of interest policy during the consultation.
With obese adults being seven times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes and with the NHS in England spending reaching £5.1 billion on overweight and obesity-related ill-health in 2014/15, it has become increasingly important to combat the obesity crisis.
Now, the Government has introduced soft drinks levies, reduced sugar by 20% in products and introduced a voluntary new healthy rating scheme for primary schools. But much more needs to be done to make healthy eating more accessible and to encourage behaviour change in terms of exercise.