‘I don’t think suddenly we’ve got X amount of unemployed people and we all give them Mounjaro and once they start losing weight, that’s it, they’re all suddenly going to be in employment’
A woman on weight loss medication has called Health Secretary Wes Streeting “naive” for suggesting that weight-loss injections could be offered to jobless individuals to aid their return to work.
A study by Health Innovation Manchester and pharmaceutical giant Lilly is set to explore the “real-world effectiveness” of the anti-obesity drug Mounjaro, also known as tirzepatide, in terms of weight loss, diabetes prevention, preventing obesity-related complications, and its impact on NHS resources.
Both Mr Streeting and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer have hinted that the treatment could alleviate strain on the NHS and bolster the economy by reducing sick leave. However, Cheri Ferguson, 42, who began with the weight loss drug Ozempic in March 2023 before switching to Mounjaro this year, believes a proposed trial won’t be enough to motivate people back into employment.
The contract administrator from Burnham, Buckinghamshire, who credits the injections with her 10-stone weight loss, said: “There are always going to be a certain amount of people that you control this medication with that have no intention of getting a job once they’ve used this medication and I think that that’s another tough conversation that needs to be had.”
“I don’t think suddenly we’ve got X amount of unemployed people and we all give them Mounjaro and once they start losing weight, that’s it, they’re all suddenly going to be in employment. I don’t think that’s the case at all. And I think that’s very naive as well to think that that is the case.”
Mounjaro, which is made by Lilly, is a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonist, a family of medications that help manage blood sugar and are used to treat type 2 diabetes and obesity. Other GLP-1 agonists include semaglutide – sold under the brand names Wegovy, Ozempic and Rybelsus.
Ms Ferguson expressed her concern that the new weight-loss injections will be restricted to unemployed individuals, which she believes is unfair for those who have had to seek private healthcare and pay for their own weight-loss medication. “There are people that will want to take this drug and they will have absolutely no desire to be in the workforce and I think that’s another situation entirely,” she explained.
“So you do get quite a lot of people that think, ‘Well, hang on a second. I funded this. I have to work. Why should you get it free if you’re unemployed?’.”
“I find it incredibly frustrating. I think I would wonder how they would do it if it was just people that are unemployed. How would you police that? You’ll have people, like myself when I started this medication, I was on a lower income, it was a struggle for me to pay for it every month. So does that mean I should now quit my job so that I’ve got better access to the medication?”.
Ms Ferguson, who lives with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), confessed she’s been “struggling with my weight since I was a child”, having tried various weight-loss methods and battled with yo-yo dieting and binge eating. She admitted feeling “at a loss” with her weight and sought advice from her GP who recommended Ozempic as she was “an ideal candidate because I had pre-type two diabetes”.
From tipping the scales at 22 stone and eight pounds in 2023, she slimmed down to 12 stone. Ms Ferguson credits her weight loss to Ozempic and later Mounjaro, and has become an “advocate” for weight-loss drugs, sharing her journey with her 10,000 TikTok followers.
