Active Diabetes, Hormones & Metabolism Public Health & Healthcare

Developing an extended framework for evaluating the cost-effectiveness of incretin-based anti-obesity medications (AOMs)

Funder Wellcome Charity-funded
Recipient organisation University of Sheffield
Funding Not disclosed
Period Oct 2025 — Sept 2028

In plain English

AI plain-English summary

NICE’s standard cost-effectiveness calculations for weight-loss drugs like Wegovy and Mounjaro ignore whether those drugs widen or narrow health inequalities between rich and poor. This project will build a new economic framework that factors in those equity impacts. Current NICE evaluations take a narrow health-system perspective—counting only direct medical costs and benefits. But obesity is tightly linked to deprivation, and expensive new drugs risk being taken up mainly by wealthier patients, potentially worsening health gaps. The researchers will co-produce an “obesity system map” with stakeholders, elicit key equity parameters, and adapt an existing Sheffield health-economic model to incorporate distributional concerns. If successful, the framework could change how NICE and other bodies assess anti-obesity medications, making equity a formal part of cost-effectiveness decisions. That might shift funding recommendations toward treatments that deliver fairer health outcomes, not just cheaper ones. The work is applied and policy-facing—it aims to produce a practical tool for decision-makers, not fundamental science. The immediate impact would be on how public money is spent on obesity drugs, with potential downstream effects on prescribing patterns and patient access.

View original technical description
The worldwide prevalence of obesity has increased significantly over the last 30-years and represents a pressing public health challenge. Several incretin- based anti-obesity medications (AOMs) such as GLP-1 receptor agonists liraglutide, semaglutide, and tirzepatide have been approved by NICE in recent years. Such medications have been evaluated for cost-effectiveness via NICE processes, and consistent with the NICE methods guide have taken a direct health system perspective. However, a broader economic evaluation may be warranted to take into account the impact of AOMs on wider policy domains and on health equity and distributional concerns. This research project aims to develop an extended framework for the evaluation of AOMs to include such wider outcomes and estimate the impact on the cost-effectiveness of AOMs where an extended (rather than traditional) cost-effectiveness framework is used. The research will pay particular attention to the inclusion of health equity impacts associated with AOM medications. The framework will be developed through 1) the co-production of an obesity system map to account for the impact of AOMs; 2) the elicitation of key parameters to include health equity concerns within the framework; and 3) the adaptation of the Sheffield- developed SMPH health economic obesity model to implement the developed framework.

View the original record at the funder ↗

Researchers

Joseph Lord (EPMC Awardee)

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Original classification

PhD Studentship (Basic)

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