UK Health Market Round-Up: MPs Call NHS Obesity Care an Indefensible Failure

MPs say NHS weight-loss services are failing and the Mounjaro rollout is too slow

In a report published this week, the Health and Social Care Committee called the lack of adequate weight management services an "indefensible failure" of people living with obesity. It found a "significant postcode lottery" and an "emerging two-tier system" that depends on whether people can pay privately. Obesity costs the UK at least £74.3bn a year, and more than two-thirds of the population is overweight or obese.

The committee said the NHS plan to roll out Mounjaro reaches "a woefully small number of people" and asked the government to urgently reassess its pace, including how digital providers could help. Because far more GLP-1s are prescribed privately than on the NHS, MPs said the health service could learn from the private sector. They also want regulated online pharmacies to have secure access to relevant GP records, and to be able to record that a patient is on a GLP-1.

Other recommendations include roughly doubling bariatric surgery to around 13,000 operations a year, wraparound nutrition and mental health support with every treatment, and a review of the MHRA's capacity to tackle illegal weight-loss jabs. The MHRA's Andy Morling told the committee "we cannot arrest our way out of this."

Women lost a quarter of their body weight on CagriSema

Novo Nordisk said on 20 October that women in its REDEFINE 1 trial lost an average of 25% of their body weight over 68 weeks on the 2.4mg dose of CagriSema, compared with 3% on placebo. Split by menopause stage, the average loss was 26.7% before menopause, 24.8% during perimenopause and 23.1% after menopause.

These figures come from a later analysis of the trial rather than its main goal, and Novo itself called them hypothesis-generating. CagriSema combines semaglutide, the medicine in Wegovy, with a second drug called cagrilintide. It is not licensed in the UK, and a US decision is expected before the end of the year.

MPs debate prostate cancer screening for high-risk men today

A petition asking the government to screen all men at high risk of prostate cancer gathered 101,931 signatures, and MPs debate it in Westminster Hall at 4.30pm today. The petition argues that the UK National Screening Committee's approach is too narrow.

The committee's final recommendation in May 2026 was to offer a PSA test every two years only to men aged 45 to 61 with a confirmed BRCA2 gene change and a family history of breast, ovarian, pancreatic or prostate cancer. The government accepted it. Black men, who face a higher risk, are being invited into the TRANSFORM trial instead, backed by up to £18 million in extra funding. Debates in Westminster Hall do not change policy on their own, but they put ministers on the record.

Unravel Health raises £2.5m for an at-home saliva hormone test

London-based Unravel Health has raised about £2.5 million in seed funding to develop its Micro Lab, a device that reads hormone levels from saliva at home. The round was led by Conduit EIS Impact Fund and Wrightwood. The technology comes out of research at the University of Glasgow.

Testing focuses on female hormones for now, with plans to add men's health markers. The company will spend the money on equivalency studies and regulatory work, and plans early-access devices in 2027.