Boots will offer some patients 25 per cent off weight-loss jabs if they start going to the gym or jogging 3.1 miles (5km) at the weekend.
The pharmacy has partnered with Vitality, the health insurance firm, to offer drugs such as Wegovy and Mounjaro at a large discount to patients who also overhaul their lifestyles.
The scheme is intended to incentivise obese patients to make long-term changes so that their weight-loss is sustainable, rather than relying solely on jabs as a quick fix — and risk piling all the weight back on.
Members of Vitality earn “points” based on how healthy their lifestyle is, such as their daily step count, any gym visits, and whether they complete a ParkRun.
Those who accumulate the most points will get higher discounts, of up to 25 per cent, off weight-loss jabs purchased from Boots Online Doctor service. This could amount to savings of £1,000 a year for those on the highest dose of Mounjaro, which costs about £335 a month.
The scheme is open to members of Vitality through private health insurance or workplace schemes, who will get a minimum of 10 per cent off jabs. Patients will also get free “wraparound” support from Boots, such as healthy meal planning tips.
Trials show that patients who stop taking weight-loss jabs regain nearly all of the weight, unless they have also taken steps to improve their lifestyle during treatment.
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Jamie Kerruish, the chief healthcare officer at Boots, said: “Having this discount structure in place makes weight-loss medication a bit more accessible, and also gives you that behavioural nudge to become more healthy.”
He said that taking weight-loss drugs could give people an opportunity to “form a different relationship with exercise” which helped them sustain the weight-loss in the long term. Incentivising this behaviour through discounts could help them “build habits” to transform their lifestyle.
“Our customers tell us that [weight-loss medication] is something that has changed the way that they interact with their families, their exercise regime,” Kerruish said, adding that it had enabled grandparents to “play with their grandkids again”.
Vitality operates a tiered “status” system based on how healthy people’s lifestyles are, from Bronze, Silver, Gold to Platinum. Discounts will start at 10 per cent, increasing to 15 per cent for Silver members, 20 per cent for Gold and 25 per cent for Platinum.
Mounjaro costs between £176 and £335 a month
PETER BYRNE/PA
Points to boost status level are awarded based on factors such as daily step count based on verified fitness watch data, as well as any workouts. They are also available for taking part in NHS health checks.
Dr Katie Tryon, the deputy chief executive for Vitality Health, said that data showed exercise increased the health benefits of weight-loss medication. This is because it limits the risk of losing muscle mass, improving overall strength and cardiovascular function.
She said: “We’ve got lots of evidence to show that if you start losing weight, it becomes easier to exercise. There is this wonderful flywheel effect. It’s really important that you’re doing all these healthy things, and not just thinking, ‘well, it’s fine, I’m on medication to lose weight’.”
Research by Vitality looked at data from 92,000 patients taking weight-loss jabs, finding that the costs of hospital treatment reduced twice as much in patients who exercised compared with those who didn’t. However, more than one in ten people stop exercising after starting a weight-loss drug, which could potentially leave them in a worse position overall.
“There’s a cohort of people that actually reduce the amount of physical activity that they’re doing when on medications because they don’t feel like they need to do it anymore. And that’s an incredibly dangerous proposition in terms of health detriment,” Tryon said.
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More than two million people in the UK are taking weight-loss jabs, also known as GLP-1 drugs, which work by suppressing appetite. Almost all are buying them privately from online pharmacies. Mounjaro costs between £176 and £335 a month, depending on dose, while Wegovy costs between £100 and £286 a month.
Some experts have warned that people will have to stay on them for life to keep the weight off. A study by Cambridge University this month found that on average people regained 60 per cent of the weight they lost within one year of stopping the medication.
Last week, Professor Sir Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer, warned that weight-loss jabs alone could not solve the UK’s obesity crisis. He said that “just relying on the drugs seems to me the wrong answer”.