A Labour MP has lost eight stone with the help of Mounjaro after battling online abuse from trolls who made fun of her.
Carolyn Harris was a size 24 and weighed 19 stone when she started taking the weight loss jab in October.
The 64-year-old, who is on the highest weekly dose of 15mg, said she weighs 11 stone and is a size 10 one year later, and is now “healthier than ever”.
“The abuse I was receiving online was horrendous and I made the decision to try Mounjaro,” said Ms Harris, who has since quit the social media platform X.
But the MP for Neath and Swansea East fears the drug’s price rise will exclude others from benefiting from Mounjaro.
Currently around 1.5 million people use weight-loss drugs in the UK, with the vast majority paying for them privately.
However, the drug company Eli Lilly said in August it was putting up the list price of the drug by as much as 170 per cent.
Eli Lilly launched Mounjaro in the UK in February last year, while rival Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy treatment has been available in the country since September 2023.
The company said when it launched Mounjaro in the UK, it agreed to a list price “significantly below” that in its three other European markets to prevent delays in availability through the NHS.
“We are now aligning the list price more consistently,” a spokesperson previously said.
Ms Harris said she has never spent more than £150 a month on her private prescription but, like many of the 750,000 people in the UK who are thought to be using Mounjaro, she now faces paying hundreds of pounds extra a month. Her 15mg dose is increasing to £429 a month.
She has written to the health secretary, Wes Streeting, to ask for help for those who cannot afford the weight-loss jab.
In the letter, shared with The Sunday Times, Ms Harris said the impact of the price rise was of “huge concern” and called on him to work with the manufacturers to “keep the cost for patients at, or near, the current level”. It would also “keep the NHS waiting list at a lower level”, she claimed.
In the letter, she explained the drug could be life-saving and save the NHS millions, with obesity currently costing the NHS £107bn each year.
It comes as thousands of NHS patients who could benefit from the weight-loss jab Mounjaro are missing out due to funding issues.
Less than half of commissioning bodies across England have started prescribing the drug on the NHS in line with health service guidance – with just 18 out of 42 starting the roll-out more than two months after it started nationally.
Mounjaro is currently only available on the NHS for those who are older than 18 and who meet strict criteria – they need to have a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 40 or higher and four or more weight-related health conditions, including Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, cardiovascular disease, and obstructive sleep apnoea.
