The UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), which advises the National Health Service on which drugs to cover, released new draft guidance on Tuesday recommending the use of Eli Lilly’s Zepbound as a weight loss drug.
NICE recommended that the drug, also known as tirzepatide, be used for adults only if they have a BMI of at least 35 kg/m2 and and at least one weight-related comorbidity, alongside a reduced-calorie diet and increased physical activity.
The UK’s drug price watchdog previously endorsed Zepbound for type 2 diabetes.
According to NICE, Lilly said that its drug could be used for people with a BMI of at least 30 kg/m2 and one weight-related comorbidity, but the agency decided that “the most likely cost-effectiveness estimates for this group are above the range that NICE considers an acceptable use of NHS resources.” NICE also recommended that the drug be stopped if less than 5% of a patient’s starting weight is lost after six months.
Lilly did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Zepbound is the third drug from the GLP-1 class to be recommended by NICE. The agency recommended Novo’s Wegovy in 2022 for weight loss in adults with at least one weight-related condition and a BMI of at least 35 kg/m2. Then in 2023, NICE recommended Wegovy again, this time along with a reduced-calorie diet and increased physical activity to adults who have at least one weight-related comorbidity and a BMI of at least 35 kg/m2.
The GIP/GLP-1 receptor agonist, which is known as Mounjaro in type 2 diabetes, is also being studied in MASH, or metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis. The company recently released mid-stage data for the drug, showing that the tirzepatide arm of the trial had a greater proportion of patients who had no MASH after one year along with no worsening in the scarring in their livers, though how much the drug might reduce scarring is unclear.
Also this year, Zepbound hit the primary endpoints in two Phase 3 trials for adults with both obstructive sleep apnea and obesity. Lilly said it would submit the data to the FDA and other regulatory agencies for an expanded label in the middle of this year.