£280 million of taxpayers’ money is going to Lilly to fund the NHS weight loss injection trial.
This is incorrect. The five-year trial into the use of tirzepatide for people living with obesity will be funded entirely by the pharmaceutical company Lilly.
The government will not be paying the pharmaceutical firm Lilly £280 million to run a widely reported five-year trial into the impact of weight loss injections, despite confusion online.
Last week, health secretary Wes Streeting announced that pharmaceutical company Lilly would be making a £279 million investment in the UK to trial weight loss injections using the drug tirzepatide for people living with obesity.
But social media users appear to have confused the meaning of this, claiming that the government will be paying the pharmaceutical company at taxpayers’ expense.
One post claimed this would see “£280m of tax payers money [go] to Big Pharma to pay for Ozempic [sic]”, while another referred to the announcement as a “£280m investment by the UK into Lilly”.
Others have questioned if “this [is] really a good use of taxpayers money”.
This isn’t true, though.
The original press release from the Department of Health and Social Care made clear that the money would be coming from Lilly, not the government. It stated: “The UK’s world-leading life sciences sector will receive a £279 million boost to tackle significant health challenges, with an intent expressed by Lilly, the world’s largest pharmaceutical company, to invest in the UK as part of a collaborative partnership with UK government.”
The Department of Health and Social Care also confirmed to Full Fact that the £279 million will be funded “entirely by Lilly”.
A spokesperson confirmed: “No taxpayer money will be given to the company as part of the announced collaboration.”
False or misleading claims online have the potential to harm individuals, groups and democratic processes and institutions. Online claims can spread fast and far, and are difficult to contain and correct.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as partly false because Lilly will not receive any taxpayer money to fund the five-year weight loss injection trial.
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