Eli Lilly and Company has announced a strategic collaboration with the UK’s Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and devolved nations, to tackle significant population health challenges, including exploring new models to better care for people living with obesity.
“Obesity is a public health epidemic and is a causal factor of many major chronic health conditions,” said Professor Rachel Batterham, Senior Vice President for International Medical Affairs at Lilly. “Tackling obesity requires a holistic approach, including prevention strategies and effective support services for those already living with obesity. At Lilly, we are passionate about improving lives, ensuring access for innovation, and partnering across the health system to tackle complex challenges like obesity.”
This collaboration will support the UK Government's plans to drive economic growth by boosting investment, promoting innovation and supporting entrepreneurship in the UK, while helping ‘build an NHS fit for the future’ by providing significant savings and supporting the provision of treatment in community settings. Lilly anticipates making an additional £279 million in new investment into the UK, bringing the expected total Lilly inward investment into the UK to £435 million.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the strategic collaboration, between Eli Lilly and the UK Government and devolved nations and NHS England, represents a shared ambition to address population health challenges.
The collaboration will explore how Lilly, and wider industry, can work with the UK Government to further plans to establish new and innovative ways of delivering health and care services, including consideration of potential financial contributions from the UK Government and industry. Lilly’s investment in support of the implementation of this work, subject to final Government approvals, could help define future models of care for obesity treatment, including digital tools that could support people living with obesity. Lilly and the UK Government intend to collaborate to further these aims – demonstrating Lilly’s long-term commitment to the UK and improving healthcare outcomes globally.
In addition, Lilly plans to initiate a five-year real-world evidence study (SURMOUNT-REAL UK) in partnership with Health Innovation Manchester, subject to relevant approvals. The study will evaluate the real-world effectiveness of tirzepatide in weight loss, diabetes prevention, and prevention of obesity-related complications for adults with obesity. The evidence generated will potentially inform the UK's care pathway approach to the treatment of obesity. Significantly, the five-year study will also aim to collect data on healthcare resource utilisation, health-related quality of life and changes in participants’ employment status and sick days from work.
As a third activity under the MoU, Lilly aims to launch a Lilly Gateway Labs (LGL) location in the UK to support biotech innovation. This LGL initiative, which would represent up to £204 million additional investment over three years, will look to create an innovation accelerator to offer promising, early-stage UK biotechs access to Lilly’s expertise, tailored lab space, and potential financial investment. This anticipated investment would more than double the £156 million already committed by Lilly to support UK biotech innovation, paving the way to establish a new LGL site. LGL has successfully launched in several locations, and this is the first LGL investment announced in Europe. Lilly is exploring the potential to add a second LGL site in the UK in the coming years.
“For all the challenges facing the health of our nation, we have two huge advantages: some of the world’s leading scientific minds, and a National Health Service with enormous potential. If we can combine the two, patients in this country can reap the rewards of the revolution in medical science unfolding before our eyes,” said Health and Social Care Secretary, Wes Streeting. “This announcement helps the UK take its place as a world leader in life sciences. Partnerships like this are key to building a healthier society, healthier economy, and making the NHS fit for the future.”
The MoU also includes further areas for collaboration: the UK Government and Lilly will work together with the aim to bring more of Lilly’s clinical trials to the UK, leveraging the UK's strength in research and innovation; and the UK Government and Lilly will work together to explore future investment opportunities in the UK, which may include potential investment in manufacturing sites or collaborations with UK venture capital funds and academic institutions.
“Obesity is one of the biggest public health issues we face. Today's momentous agreement shows the NHS is uniquely well-placed globally not just to bring effective treatments to those who would benefit most, but also to support science, research, jobs and economic growth across the country,” added NHS England Chief Executive Amanda Pritchard. “We now have an important chance to gain a better understanding of the benefits of weight management interventions for patients, and how best to deliver them over the next few years.”
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