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Pilot weight management programmes, backed by £85m in funding, could run in pharmacies by summer 2026, the government has announced.
In a statement published on 12 August 2025, the Department of Health and Social Services and the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology announced that the UK-wide programme will enable patients to access weight management care, “including a range of wraparound services, and potentially obesity treatments, through new routes like pharmacies”, as well as digital platforms and community-based access.
It added that the government will contribute up to £50m in funding, while Lilly, who manufacture weight loss drug Mounjaro, will contribute up to £35m — at least £10m of this funding will be earmarked for pilots in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
“In participating areas, eligible patients could access innovative services as early as summer 2026,” the statement said.
Healthcare stakeholders across the NHS, such as care boards, working with technology providers will be invited to submit bids to pilot the programme, which will be delivered together with innovation agency Innovate UK.
Noting the potential benefits to patients’ health and wellbeing, the government also said the pilot could help “bring down the £11bn annual cost to the NHS of supporting patients living with obesity”.
“This programme comes as a result of the prospective landmark collaboration which was agreed between the government and Lilly at the International Investment Summit in October [2024], which could generate up to £279m of investment,” it added.
Responding to the announcement, Henry Gregg, chief executive of the National Pharmacy Association (NPA), said: “It’s good news that the government wants to expand NHS weight loss services into community pharmacies. This is something we have long called for.
“It’s important that any funding made available is sufficient to cover the costs involved for pharmacies to provide wraparound care and support.”
Gregg added that community pharmacies already support 1.4 million patients each month with weight management services.
“Despite this, the current NHS rollout remains extremely limited, with only a small number of eligible patients receiving support for obesity with weight loss treatments, and it is vital that this changes,” he said.
“With the right funding, pharmacies can scale up delivery quickly — ensuring more people get the help they need, when and where they need it.”
Peter Kyle, science and technology secretary, said: “New ways of accessing support to tackle obesity, such as through pharmacies or with help from digital tools, could be transformational for people’s quality of life, and for society — allowing individuals to more easily manage their weight and freeing them from ill-health that holds them back in daily life — while reducing the strain on our NHS.”
Earlier in August 2025, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommended that people who stop taking weight loss drugs should be offered ongoing support for at least one year, while those living with obesity and still taking medication for it should be offered wraparound care.
In July 2025, a survey by the NPA revealed that more than two-thirds of people aged 25–34 years would access weight-loss treatments on the NHS if they were made available to them, despite many being “unlikely to be clinically eligible”.
Mounjaro was made available for prescription through primary care in June 2025, with an estimated 220,000 patients potentially being prescribed the drug during the first three years of a phased introduction to NHS patients in England.
