Children as young as ten are among hundreds being given weight-loss jabs on the NHS, it can be revealed.
An audit by the Daily Mail has found that at least 188 severely obese youngsters around England are now being prescribed Wegovy by specialist weight-loss clinics.
The youngest patients in most areas are 12, but one trust said it had children aged ten on its books.
It comes even though health watchdog NICE has not formally recommended the treatment for adolescents.
One in three pupils in the last year of primary school is already overweight or obese, official figures show, and the Royal Society for Public Health recently predicted that the majority of children will be within a decade in nine areas of England.
On Monday, experts warned that doctors do not have any research into the long-term effects on children of ‘fat jabs’, which have only become available within the past five years. They urged medics to focus on children’s lifestyles.
NHS and private GP Dr Semiya Aziz, founder of say-gp.com, told the Daily Mail: ‘We already know that there are side-effects with these medications, but because these treatments are relatively new, we do not yet have any long-term research or data, especially in young people, so we have no idea what the implications might be in ten years’ time.’
But Dr Nerys Astbury, associate professor in diet and obesity at the University of Oxford, insisted: ‘The decision to prescribe these medications off-label will have not been taken lightly – but the current evidence on the potential benefits as well as potential harms will have been carefully considered and a decision made in partnership with a multi-disciplinary team and in consultation with patient and their family.’
An audit by the Daily Mail has found that at least 188 severely obese youngsters around England are now being prescribed Wegovy by specialist weight-loss clinics (stock image)
Wegovy, one of the brand names for the drug semaglutide, has been licensed for use in Britain by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency for patients aged 12 and above alongside a reduced-calorie diet and increased physical activity.
NICE, which assesses cost-effectiveness for the NHS, has not made a formal recommendation for its use in adolescents and so it can only be prescribed to them by one of the 37 NHS complications from excess weight clinics in England.
Figures from 13 of the trusts running the clinics obtained by this newspaper under the Freedom of Information Act show that they are currently prescribing the jabs to 188 children.
The largest cohort, with 33 patients, is at the Darent Valley hospital in Kent.
Figures from 13 health trusts show that they are currently prescribing weight loss jabs to 188 children (stock image)
Another 30 obese children are receiving the drug at the Alder Hey hospital in Liverpool.
And 23 patients are taking the weight-loss injections at a clinic in Portsmouth, which said the youngest was ten.
A spokesman said: ‘Pharmacotherapy is used in a small number of children and young people, as part of a holistic, bespoke treatment plan, for management of complication of excess weight including type 2 diabetes and hypertension.’
