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 next 3-6 months. (The commis-sioning 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.