In early 2023, Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, chief executive of the Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, and its UK corporate vice-president Pinder Sahota, met in Whitehall with the then health secretary Steve Barclay, England’s chief medical officer, Prof Chris Whitty, and various health and Treasury officials. They discussed the possibilities of a pilot scheme to improve obesity care in the UK.

According to internal documents obtained by the Observer, Novo Nordisk wanted “data from the Department for Work and Pensions” to “help profile those who are most likely to return to the labour market”. These individuals could then be targeted with Wegovy, the brand name for the company’s weight-loss drug semaglutide.

Simon Capewell, emeritus professor of public health at Liverpool University, observed that “targeting people in the interests of the state, for economic reasons, rather than prioritising the person’s own interests and health” was “unethical”. He also questioned the scientific “honesty” of a pilot scheme testing the efficacy of a drug in helping individuals back into the labour market, but using people who were already “considered by the DWP to be borderline for just returning to work”. It would “be a marvellous bit of marketing for the company”.

That Novo Nordisk study never materialised. Eighteen months later, though, a pilot study is being launched, to test not Wegovy but Mounjaro, the market name for tirzepatide, an anti-diabetic and weight-loss injection produced by the US pharmaceutical giant Lilly. The government trumpeted Lilly’s presence at last week’s “investment summit” and hailed the company’s £279m stake in helping “develop transformative medicines” and “trial........

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