A new daily weight loss pill could soon be approved in the UK. Orforgilpron is already available in the US – after tests showed its just as effective.
Package for LBC News, aired on 13th May 2026 Evening Show with Charlotte Lynch.
Dubious diet tablets or weight loss pills have been around for a long time, but scientists think this new one could genuinely improve people’s health and prevent obesity,
Researchers have found that a daily tablet version of weight loss jabs – called orforglipron – could help people maintain weight loss from jabs for the rest of their life.
Professor Giles Yeo is a biologists from Cambridge University, says this new drug works just like existing jabs.
“Biologically, they’re not different from the existing weight loss drugs. They target the same receptors as Wegovy and as Monjaro. The difference of this is that it’s a pill, which means you can take it easily, but it’s not as effective as the injectables. So this results in about 12% weight loss on average compared to 15 to 20% for the injectable drugs.”
Even so, as Sarah Le Brocq, founder of advocacy group All About Obesity explains, this weight loss pill could solve a known issue with existing drugs:
“There’s some new data around maintenance and actually what we’ve seen is that the orals can be a great thing help people with weight maintenance – so when keeping that weight loss off long term. So having a once daily medication as an oral rather than injectable, could be really useful.”
Professor Yeo says this is a ‘forever drug’ – something patients will take all their life.
“But high blood pressure medication is forever drugs. Statins are a forever drug.”
By cutting the cost to treat weight-loss related illnesses, it could mean lower costs for the NHS, says Yeo.
“At the moment it’s costing the NHS in direct spend, nearly £10 billion per year. For in indirect spend, for time off work, that kind of thing, it’s costing us anywhere from 50 to £100 billion a year.”
This new treatment is cheaper than existing drugs and easier for people to take.
But that comes with its own issues. Professor Yeo says his biggest fear is that these drugs fall into the hands of people with body dysmorphia.
“My biggest fear for these drugs is there’s no starting weight at which they work. So if you are 300lb looking to lose 50lb, these drugs work for you. Okay, fantastic. The issue is, if you are a 16 year old boy or girl and are 70lb, the drug will also work. That’s the problem.”
Patients in the UK can only buy weight-loss jabs if they have a BMI over 30, and the NHS only prescribes them to those with a BMI over 35. It’s not clear where that threshold would be for this new treatment.
This is already an issue with existing weight loss drugs. Sarah Le Brocq says the solution is for the NHS to have a deep enough supply to treat everyone who needs it:
“Well, I think at the moment what we’re seeing is that most people are accessing these medications privately because they can’t get access to the NHS. So what I want to see is more access to the NHS, so we need to look at how or capacity, funding streams, et cetera. And if we can do that, then hopefully we won’t have this kind of equity situation going on where it’s a 2 tier system.
“You shouldn’t be getting them from your salon or a gym or, you know, your dentist even. Yeah, like, these are supposed to be medications prescribed by a healthcare professional, and as long as people are accessing them that way, then they should, then that should be fine.”
This weight loss pill has been approved in the US, as has a competitor from Wegovy. But it needs approval from the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency before it can be sold here. And for the NHS can supply it, NICE – the group that works out whether drugs are cost effective – has to give the go-ahead. Experts say the earliest that could happen is the beginning of next year.
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