Could weight-loss drugs help get people back to work? The UK wants to find out.

LONDON — About 1 in 4 adults in Britain is obese, according to estimates from the country’s National Health Service, and the problem costs the public health care system billions every year.

Now, the government says that weight-loss injections might be part of the solution and might even help boost Britain’s productivity, which has been sluggish for years.

Studies show that people with obesity are more likely to find that ill health affects their productivity and attendance at work.

On Monday, the government announced a 279 million-pound (about $365 million) investment from pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly. Among other things, the investment will help explore new ways of delivering health services to people living with obesity and include a five-year trial of the company’s drug tirzepatide, also known as Mounjaro, which is used to treat diabetes and for weight loss.

The trial, in the Greater Manchester area in northern England, will study the effectiveness of tirzepatide in bringing about weight loss, preventing diabetes and tackling obesity-related health conditions. It will also aim to collect data on whether the drug leads to changes in participants’ employment status and sick days from work, according to a statement from the Health Innovation Network, the innovation arm of the NHS.

The government said that up to 3,000 people could eventually take part in the study.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer, speaking to BBC Breakfast on Tuesday, said he believed the drugs could be “very important for our economy and for health,” adding that tirzepatide “will be very helpful to people who want to lose weight, need to lose weight, very important for the economy so people can get back into work.”

Wes Streeting, Britain’s health secretary, wrote in an opinion piece in The Telegraph that the country’s “widening waistbands are also placing significant burden on our health service,” noting that illnesses linked to obesity cost the country’s health service roughly $14 billion a year.

“The long-term benefits of these drugs could be monumental in our approach to tackling obesity,” Streeting wrote. “For many people, these weight-loss jabs will be life-changing, help them get back to work and ease the demands on our NHS.”

But he added that “there must remain a responsibility on us all to take healthy living more seriously” and said that the country’s health service “can’t be expected to always pick up the tab.”

This month, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, a government agency that gives guidance to the NHS on medication and treatment, announced that tirzepatide would soon be available free of charge to people living with obesity and other weight-related health conditions. The agency said that nearly a quarter of a million people would be eligible to receive the injections under a three-year plan. (Tirzepatide and other weight-loss injections are available through private prescription in Britain.)

Amanda Pritchard, CEO of the NHS, said that obesity was one of the biggest public health issues in the country.

“We know weight-loss drugs will be a game changer, alongside earlier prevention strategies, in supporting many more people to lose weight and reduce their risk of killer conditions like diabetes, heart attack and stroke,” she said in a statement.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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