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NHS spending on weight loss jab quadruples to over £500m

Created at 5 Jun · 2:12 AM1 source↑ Market-relevant
IN SHORT

NHS spending on the weight loss jab Mounjaro (tirzepatide) has quadrupled in one year, reaching over £500 million. Prescriptions for the drug increased from 1.1 million to 3.1 million between the 2024/25 and 2025/26 fiscal years.

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Key Numbers

£500m+NHS annual spending on Mounjaro
4xincrease in NHS spending on Mounjaro
3.1mprescriptions for Mounjaro in 2025/26
1.1mprescriptions for Mounjaro in 2024/25

Who's Involved

NHS
National Health Service, UK's publicly funded healthcare system
NHS spending on weight loss jab quadruples to over £500m

↳ Why This Matters

The soaring cost of Mounjaro highlights the growing financial burden of new, high-cost weight loss medications on national healthcare systems and raises questions about long-term affordability and resource allocation.

Key facts

  • NHS spending on Mounjaro has quadrupled in one year.
  • Total spending on the drug now exceeds £500 million.
  • Prescriptions rose from 1.1 million to 3.1 million.
  • The period for this increase was between 2024/25 and 2025/26.

Spending by the UK's National Health Service (NHS) on the weight loss drug Mounjaro, also known as tirzepatide, has quadrupled over the past year, reaching more than £500 million. This expenditure now surpasses that of any other drug in the NHS formulary. The number of prescriptions for Mounjaro saw a significant increase, rising from 1.1 million in the 2024/25 fiscal year to 3.1 million in the 2025/26 fiscal year. The drug is colloquially referred to as the 'King Kong' of weight loss jabs.

Frequently asked questions

Mounjaro is a weight loss jab, also known by its generic name tirzepatide. It is sometimes referred to as the 'King Kong' of weight loss drugs.

NHS spending on Mounjaro quadrupled in one year, rising to over £500 million.

Prescriptions increased from 1.1 million in 2024/25 to 3.1 million in 2025/26.

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Cadence

How It Developed

4 Jun · 6:33 PM
NHS spending on the weight loss jab Mounjaro (tirzepatide) has quadrupled to over £500 million in one year, surpassing all other drug costs.
Daily Mail via PiQSuite

Sources

T1
NHS spending on blockbuster weight loss jab soars four-fold in a year to over half a billion pounds with bill now higher than any other drugm.piqsuite.com

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