MPs call the NHS Mounjaro rollout unambitious as most eligible patients pay privately

MPs on the Commons Health and Social Care Committee have called the NHS Mounjaro rollout unambitious and told the government to speed it up. Their report, published on October 23, says scarce NHS supply has left weight loss drugs out of reach for most eligible people, while many others pay privately. Only around 6% of people who would qualify under national guidance will be reached in the first three years, according to a Health Foundation analysis cited in coverage of the report. The government says it will respond in due course.

What the MPs found

The NHS in England has been phasing in tirzepatide, sold as Mounjaro, for weight management, starting with the people judged most at risk. Under that plan, about 220,000 people are due to be offered the drug over the first three years. The Health Foundation, an independent charity, worked out in February that this reaches roughly 6% of those who would be clinically eligible under guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. According to the Mirror's account of the report, the NHS had estimated that 2.8 million patients could qualify and that treating all of them in the first year would cost £15.2 billion over five years, which is why NICE agreed to a gradual rollout. The committee does not dispute the cost. It argues the pace is too slow for the need.

The rest of the GLP-1 market sits outside the health service. About 2.4 million people were receiving a GLP-1 prescription each month by July 2025, according to IQVIA data cited in the Pharmaceutical Journal, and only a small part of that came through the NHS. Most of the rest is private treatment bought through online pharmacies and clinics, often at full private prices. Those prices rose sharply last year, when Lilly raised the private price of Mounjaro in the UK while NHS prices stayed under a separate deal. The committee's report treats this gap as the central problem. Patients with the same clinical need face very different bills depending on whether they can wait for the NHS or pay a pharmacy every month.

Who pays when the NHS cannot

The committee says this has produced a two-tier system in which access depends on ability to pay. Its chair, Layla Moran, put it directly. "Weight-loss drugs have been a positive innovation but they remain out of reach for those who can't afford them. A two-tier system has emerged because of limited supply via the NHS, inadvertently deepening health inequalities," she said. The report adds that obesity already follows lines of deprivation, so unequal access to treatment risks widening health gaps between richer and poorer areas. MPs also describe obesity services across England as patchy, with clear differences between regions in what is offered, how long people wait and which route they are sent down, from diet courses to medicines to surgery.

Its chief executive, Henry Gregg, said the slow pace "inadvertently helps to fuel a growing black market for unlicensed or counterfeit versions of GLP-1 treatments."

The private route carries its own risks. The National Pharmacy Association, which represents independent pharmacies, backed the committee's view that the rollout is slow. Its chief executive, Henry Gregg, said the slow pace "inadvertently helps to fuel a growing black market for unlicensed or counterfeit versions of GLP-1 treatments." The committee itself noted that limited NHS supply has pushed some people toward unlicensed products bought online, often after seeing adverts on social media. Mounjaro is a prescription only medicine in the UK, so a legitimate supply needs a prescriber, a proper assessment and a registered pharmacy. Products sold without a prescription, or marketed as research chemicals, carry no guarantee of what is inside the pen and no route to complain when something goes wrong.

What the committee wants changed

The central demand is that the government urgently reassess the pace of the NHS Mounjaro rollout and make better use of the capacity of digital providers. As a first step, MPs want ministers to hold a summit on GLP-1 access with providers and health professionals. They also want a new national framework with ambitious targets for the share of each local population able to get these drugs. To make online prescribing safer, the committee says regulated pharmacies and digital providers should have secure access to patient records, so they no longer rely on patients to confirm that they meet the prescribing rules. GPs are currently asked to check details for private providers, which MPs describe as a continued burden on general practice that a shared record could remove.

On the illegal trade, the committee wants a review of whether the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has the capacity and resources to tackle it. The Pharmaceutical Journal reports that this includes annual reviews of the MHRA's ability to act on illegal online advertising, a joined up plan across agencies with ministerial oversight, and a public awareness campaign. Beyond drugs, the report calls for obesity to be managed as a long term condition through a national care pathway modelled on diabetes care, and for far more bariatric surgery. Moran said surgery is "severely underutilised in England, particularly compared with neighbouring countries." The full set of findings is summarised in the committee's own news release, which links to the report.

What happens next for patients

Nothing in the report changes access yet. Select committee reports carry weight but do not bind ministers, and the Department of Health and Social Care said it would "carefully consider the Committee's recommendations and respond in due course." An NHS spokesperson said the health service is testing new ways to speed up access, including new routes for starting these medicines, and pointed to other weight support services already in place. No date has been set for any change to the NHS Mounjaro rollout, no target has been published, and no summit has been called. For now, the eligibility rules that GPs began applying when family doctors in England started prescribing last year remain in force.

For community pharmacy, the report is an opening. The National Pharmacy Association said its members are ready to support a wider rollout, and Boots argued in written evidence for digital delivery through trusted online pharmacies. Whether that happens depends on funding, which the report does not settle. Patients who are not yet eligible on the NHS can ask their GP where they stand in the phased plan, and those paying privately should check that the pharmacy is registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council before buying. People already on private treatment should not assume they can move onto NHS supply. Until the government responds, the price of faster access stays with the patient, and the committee's recommendations remain proposals rather than policy.

Conclusion

MPs want the NHS Mounjaro rollout speeded up, with digital providers, shared patient records, local targets and a summit on access. The government has promised only to respond. Until it does, about 6% of eligible people are due NHS treatment over three years, and everyone else either waits or pays privately through registered pharmacies.