Prescriptions for weight-loss drugs in Scotland have more than doubled. Photo / Getty Images
Scots are being prescribed a popular weight-loss drug in record numbers after the national health service bill for the drug more than doubled in a single year.
Semaglutide, the drug known under brand names such as Ozempic and Wegovy, was dispensed 168,486 times in 2024/25 compared to 79,182 prescriptions the previous year.
The 112.8% rise was by far the largest for any drug prescribed by Scotland’s NHS last year, the Telegraph can disclose.
Dr Iain Morrison, chairman of the British Medical Association’s GP committee in Scotland, said that amid Scotland’s “growing obesity crisis”, weight-loss drugs are “increasingly being used and prescribed as part of a solution”.
About two-thirds of Scottish adults are overweight and a third are deemed to be obese, which is defined as having a body mass index of 30kg per sqm.
These figures are “disproportionately higher” than other United Kingdom nations and among the largest compared to European Union member states, a recent assessment found.
Public Health Scotland (PHS) figures said the cost of the drug to the public purse had risen from £8.7 million ($20m) in 2023/24 to nearly £18.7m ($43m).
Each prescription costs the Scottish NHS an average of more than £110, with the SNP’s free prescriptions policy meaning nothing was paid by the recipient.
The figures also disclosed that spending on tirzepatide, which is known under the brand names Mounjaro and Zepbound, has risen from zero to more than £2m in only two years. This was based on 18,332 prescriptions last year.
That is in addition to more than 300,000 people in Scotland, the equivalent of nearly 5% of the population, who are estimated to be paying privately for weight-loss drugs.
Professor Michael Lean, clinical research fellow at the University of Glasgow’s School of Medicine, said health boards had previously advised GPs that semaglutide should be given only to patients with diabetes and that request should not be disregarded.
But he said Scottish Government guidance to boards issued last year said weight loss drugs could be prioritised for a much wider range of obesity-related conditions, such as heart disease.
He argued that this reflects “a greater understanding of the multiple serious health impacts of severe obesity” than in England, where even stricter prescription guidance applies.
Lean predicted the bill for semaglutide and similar medications will continue to rise as more GPs prescribe it.
However, he argued there was “quite big potential for NHS cost savings” in the longer term by preventing serious disease. Obesity is estimated to cost Scotland £5.3 billion a year.
It is estimated that 67% of adults in Scotland are overweight compared to 64% in England and Northern Ireland and 61% in Wales.
PHS warned in October that “without urgent and sustained intervention” the number of adults who are overweight or living with obesity is set to rise significantly.
The agency estimated there will be 3.3 million Scots who are overweight by 2040 – more than half the population – and warned this would pile more pressure on the country’s struggling NHS.
Lean said the previous years’ figures for prescribing semaglutide were probably “mostly” to treat diabetes, although he acknowledged it was difficult to “disentangle” other serious consequences of obesity.
But he said that “an increasing number of GPs” were prescribing it if the patient concerned had a “serious medical condition which could be improved by losing weight”.
“Many Scottish GPs have been willing, under specialist advice, to give patients a trial of semaglutide or tirzepatide for these conditions, and the results have often been life-changing,” he said.
Although semaglutide was “very, very expensive”, he said it was “an absolute revelation” for those whose conditions would otherwise deteriorate.
The PHS figures disclosed that the number of Ozempic prescriptions has more than quadrupled in only three years, with the total rising from 41,873 in 2021/22 to 168,486 in 2024/25.
Over the same period, the cost to the NHS of prescribing the drug rose from just under £4.4m to nearly £18.7m.
Stephen Kerr, a Scottish Tory MSP, said: “As take-up increases – and it will have to increase rapidly – the cost to the taxpayer will rise exponentially. That is where serious concern is warranted.”
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We have a clear route for licensed medicines, including obesity medicines, to be appraised for their routine use in the NHS in Scotland through the Scottish Medicines Consortium.
“This is based on clinical and cost-effectiveness, ensuring value for both patients and the NHS. Prescribing data published by Public Health Scotland does not account for any confidential price reduction agreement for the NHS that may be in place.”
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