Weight loss needles for children could be used to tackle obesity crisis

Weight loss jabs could be prescribed to children as young as six after trials found they slashed obesity and tackled other health issues.

Those who took liraglutide for just over a year reduced their body mass index by more than seven per cent and had lower blood pressure and blood sugar levels.

Obesity can raise the chances of chronic conditions in childhood and later life, such as heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes and some cancers.

A study of adolescents aged 12 to 18 in 2023 found that giving the jabs for 16 months halved obesity rates, when given with lifestyle counselling.

In the youngest patient trial so far, the drug or a placebo was given to 82 children aged six to 12, with an average BMI of 31, putting them in the obese range.

Some 56 children were given a daily 3mg injection or their maximum tolerated dose for 56 weeks and 26 a dummy drug, while being encouraged to eat healthily and exercise.

By the end of the trial, the average BMI was 5.8 per cent lower for those on liraglutide and up 1.6 per cent in the those given a placebo.

While putting on weight is normal as children grow, the average weight gain was a 1.6 per cent rise on liraglutide compared to a 10 per cent increase for the dummy jab.

Some 46 per cent on the drug, known by brand name Saxenda, had a 5 per cent lower BMI.

This compared to just 8 per cent of children on the placebo, according to findings published in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes Obesity in Madrid.

Professor Claudia Fox, of the University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, said her trial meant “there is hope children living with obesity can live healthier, more productive lives”.

But side effects such as vomiting occurred in eight out of ten children on liraglutide versus half in the placebo group. More serious reactions were had by 12.5 per cent of those on the drug, versus 7.7 per cent in the control group.