As advised by the North East London Integrated Care Board: NICE TA875,has approved Semaglutide (Wegovy®) for managing overweight and obese patients published on 8th March 2023 which has been widely publicised.

However, the current agreement by NICE is that it can only be pre-scribed by a specialist weight management (tier 3) service (i.e. hospital only). It is, therefore, not available to be prescribed by the GP.

There is no commissioned Tier 3 Weight Management Service for BHR (Barking & Dagenham, Havering and Redbridge) patients at the moment, however there is a working group looking into this, and we hope this service will be in place in the near future. (The commissioning of pathways is not something Medicines Management Team at the ICB can undertake).

A similar medication is licensed for the treatment of adults with insufficiently controlled type 2 diabetes mellitus as an adjunct to diet and exercise.