Weight-loss drugs alone will not solve UK’s obesity crisis, says Chris Whitty | Weight-loss drugs

Weight loss drugs cannot save the UK from the worsening obesity crisis and produce unpleasant side effects for many users, the government’s chief medical adviser has said.

Professor Chris Whitty delivered an in-depth critique of the drugs during a speech in London on Thursday evening.

“Relying solely on medication seems to me to be the wrong answer,” he said.

His skepticism of drugs such as Mounjaro and Wegovy, known as GLP-1 agonists, contrasted with that of Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who hailed them as a “real game changer” in the fight against obesity.

Delivering the annual conference of the Association of Medical Journalists, Whitty warned against too much reliance on drugs to treat obesity. Stricter measures to curb junk food advertising and make foods healthier to prevent obesity would be a better course of action, he said.

“Does anyone in this group believe that the right answer is to let obesity rise due to fairly aggressive marketing of obesogenic foods to children and put them on GLP-1 agonists at age 18? I think it’s shocking if that’s where we end up.

“Really, is our response to say ‘abandon public health,’ which we know will work, in children and then just rely on drugs to get us out of the hole? I don’t think that’s a socially acceptable response. In fact, I don’t think it’s a medically acceptable response, because these drugs are not harmless,” Whitty said.

“GLP-1s are very good drugs. [But] we know that if you stop them, the weight comes back on. Some people have very bad reactions to them. These are very small numbers, but they are true. And a large number of people experience unpleasant side effects, particularly gastrointestinal,” he added.

GLP-1s, sometimes called “big shots,” have been shown to increase the risk of complications such as severe acute pancreatitis, sudden loss of vision, and unexpected pregnancy in women using contraception.

With weight regain common after stopping GLP-1s, it could also mean that people end up older with less muscle mass and more fat than before they started taking them, he added.

Decades of policy in the UK aimed at stopping the rise of obesity have failed, unlike other countries’ successes in this area, but their achievements show it is possible, Whitty said. He added that he was “really worried” about obesity getting worse, contrary to campaigns to prevent smoking and air pollution.

“When it comes to obesity, things are going in the wrong direction. It doesn’t have to be. In France, for example, obesity levels are about the same today as they were in 1990. Nobody can claim that the French don’t like their food,” he said.

Asked whether ministers should encourage or force food companies to make their products healthier, Whitty said “reformulation certainly has a role to play in that” and urged them to put less sugar and fat in their products.

Industries that would face tough measures to improve public health are using “very powerful lobbyists” to persuade media outlets to publish stories that will then dissuade ministers from taking the bold action needed, he added. The media then describes policies that could be beneficial as a “nanny state,” even though most voters want action to be taken.

Obesity experts welcomed Whitty’s remarks.

Sonia Pombo, head of research and impact at Action on Salt and Sugar, said: “Weight-loss drugs are not, and should never be treated as, a substitute for strong, effective food policy. Relying on GLP-1 to counter the harms of an unhealthy food environment is simply putting a band-aid on a system that continues to generate health problems.”

Katharine Jenner, director of the Obesity Health Alliance, said: “It is not a sensible approach for the Government to continue to let children grow up in environments flooded with unhealthy options, only to rely on drugs later in life to address the harms. We should not accept a system in which the food industry promotes obesity and the pharmaceutical industry is left to pick up the pieces.”

“Childhood obesity is preventable. Stronger action, from reformulating foods and restricting junk food advertising to children to setting targets for companies to reduce sales of unhealthy processed products, can help create healthier environments and better outcomes. The UK should learn from the evidence and act much bolder to prevent obesity before it starts.”