Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he has taken to ensure post-market surveillance of NHS-provided weight loss drugs to monitor their long-term effects in patients.

The newest obesity medicines, liraglutide, under various brand names, semaglutide, under the brand name Wegovy, and tirzepatide, under the brand name Mounjaro, have only been licensed and recommended for use for the treatment of obesity over the last few years. We recognise the need to collect long-term data on both the effectiveness and side effects of these medicines.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) continually monitors the safety of medicines during their use, including weight loss medications. The MHRA has robust safety monitoring and surveillance systems in place for all healthcare products.

For example, although semaglutide and some other GLP-1 treatments have been used in the treatment of diabetes for some-time, semaglutide, when used for weight management, as well as newer medicines like tirzepatide are subject to more intense monitoring by the MHRA as part of its Black Triangle scheme.

The MHRA also strongly encourages patients and healthcare professionals to continue reporting suspected side effects to GLP-1 medicines through its Yellow Card Scheme, which collects reports of suspected adverse effects for all healthcare products.

In addition, NHS England is working with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, the MHRA, and academic partners to collect real world evidence on the use of tirzepatide in National Health Services. This includes monitoring prescribing patterns, patient outcomes, and long-term safety signals through existing national datasets and local system level services.

These measures ensure that the benefits and risks of using medicines for weight management are kept under ongoing review, and that appropriate action can be taken if safety concerns arise.