The race to develop the ‘holy grail’ of weight-loss drugs

There is, equally, the argument that companies are developing better and better drugs, ones that help treat more than just people’s weight but also other conditions.

Zealand Pharma, which is working on weight-loss pills, said its focus is not purely on helping people shed more pounds.

Chief executive Adam Steensberg told the Financial Times that the plan was to design treatments with “similar degrees of weight loss but the potential to better address specific [illnesses that occur with] obesity”.

Meanwhile, AstraZeneca has suggested it is planning to use its weight-loss pill in combination with its other medicines to help people not just lose weight but also tackle things like cardiometabolic diseases.

A crucial aspect of this will be price. AstraZeneca’s Sir Pascal said the aim was to make weight-loss pills cheaper than injections.

Professor Naveed Sattar, who was appointed to helm Britain’s obesity-cutting programme last year, said this could be a game-changer.

He is expecting the next generation of weight-loss pills to be “substantially cheaper” after taking into account the lower cost of storing pills and the fact manufacturers would not require needles.

“We need to wait until we have the data but there could be an argument in using these to help prevent people from developing obesity in the first place,” Sattar says. “It’s becoming much harder for people to lead healthier lives without some conscious effort.

“There’s more food around and the opportunities to be physically active are less given we have cars – so people are struggling.”

He hopes at least one or two pills are approved in the next five years: “It would really widen how much they can be used.”

It is a view shared by Strachan, who says the pill version could send demand for weight-loss drugs into overdrive.

“People are generally frustrated with not being able to lose weight,” Strachan says. “We are only at the tip of the iceberg.”