January 2026 I GB-73006 Disclaimer  POLITICAL ADVERTISEMENT  * This is sponsored content from AstraZeneca.  * The advertisement is linked to public policy debates on the future of cardiovascular care in the UK.  * This content has been paid for and developed by AstraZeneca UK  Cardiovascular disease (CVD) has shaped the nation’s health for generations. It remains a leading cause of death and a major driver of long-term sickness, yet it is also one of the most preventable. Today, 8 million people in the U.K. live with CVD, and early deaths from CVD in England have reached a 14-year high.1,2 The reality is stark: without urgent action, one million more could live with CVD by 2030 — and two million by 2040.1  Tackling CVD is not only a moral imperative, it’s an economic necessity. In the U.K., 2.5 million working-age people are economically inactive due to long-term sickness, and CVD contributes to long-term sickness at unprecedented levels3 Each year, CVD costs the U.K. economy an estimated £24 billion, straining public finances, dampening productivity and widening inequalities.4  In July 2023, AstraZeneca convened the CVD-risk coalition — with charities, clinical organizations and patient groups — to shape a coordinated response to these trends.   Today, the coalition has published Getting to the heart of the matter: A national action plan for tackling cardiovascular disease5 — a blueprint for decisive action and a call for the government and the NHS to confront CVD head on. It has a clear message: the tools exist to tackle this challenge, but we need leadership, investment, and a focus on prevention and early intervention to unlock meaningful change.  > the tools exist to tackle this challenge, but we need leadership, investment, > and a focus on prevention and early intervention to unlock meaningful change. Diagnosis and prevention gaps we cannot afford   CVD often arises from detectable and treatable conditions: hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes, chronic kidney disease. Yet millions remain undiagnosed. Six million people in the U.K. don’t know they have high blood pressure — a silent driver of heart attacks, strokes and kidney disease.6,7   This systemic diagnosis gap is not the result of a lack of evidence or clinical consensus; rather, the longstanding pressure on primary and community care, fragmentation across services, and declining investment in public health. Between 2015/16 and 2023/24, funding for key preventative services — including smoking cessation and adult obesity support — fell sharply in real terms.8  Additionally, secondary prevention remains patchy across England. Despite clear treatment guidance from NICE, less than half of patients with CVD meet recommended cholesterol levels. Almost 30 percent of hypertension patients are not meeting recommended blood pressure targets or don’t have a recent blood pressure measurement in their records.9   The consequences are clear: progress on CVD outcomes has stalled, premature deaths are rising and those in England’s most deprived areas are four times more likely to die prematurely from CVD than those in the least deprived.10  > progress on CVD outcomes has stalled, premature deaths are rising and those in > England’s most deprived areas are four times more likely to die prematurely > from CVD than those in the least deprived We must place prevention at the heart of our health system.  A vision for proactive, personalized cardiovascular care  Early CVD prevention and treatment save lives and money. It benefits patients, reduces NHS pressure and strengthens the UK’s economic resilience.   A 20 percent reduction in CVD incidence could save the NHS £1.1 billion annually within five years and place 60-70,000 more people into work.11 Recent CVDACTION modeling suggests that even modest near-term improvements in treatment could prevent approximately 61,000 events of heart attack, stroke, heart failure admission and end-stage kidney disease in three years.12   This is not theoretical. We know what integrated, proactive models can do.   Unlocking the power of data and digital tools  Platforms like CVDPREVENT and CVDACTION already demonstrate how data-driven insights from GP records can flag undiagnosed or undertreated patients — enabling clinicians to prioritize, optimize treatment and thus prevent avoidable heart attacks and strokes every year.13,14  Additionally, as the NHS App becomes a digital ‘front door’, there is an opportunity to deliver personalized risk information, lifestyle guidance and seamless access to services.  But digital transformation requires investment in workforce capability, interoperability between systems and national procurement frameworks that can scale at pace.  Tom Keith Roach A neighborhood approach to prevention  Joined-up neighborhood services — across community pharmacies, general practice, specialist teams and local authorities — could identify risk earlier, manage long-term conditions holistically and reduce avoidable admissions.   Community pharmacy hypertension screening has delivered over two million blood pressure checks in a single year, identifying thousands previously unaware of their risk.15    The LUCID program, developed as part of a joint working initiative between AstraZeneca and University Hospitals Leicester, has shown that integrated care across nephrology specialists and primary care can identify high-risk chronic kidney disease patients and optimize their treatment, reducing emergency admissions and long-term NHS costs.16    But to truly deliver change, resources must be rebalanced toward primary and community care. Cardiovascular prevention cannot be driven from hospitals alone. The neighborhood service must be properly resourced, with contracts and incentives aligned to prevention and outcomes, not activity.  A whole-system effort to transform lives and the economy  The forthcoming Modern Service Framework for CVD, promised within the Government’s 10 Year Health Plan, presents a critical opportunity. This framework must: * Embed prevention into every level of care  * Enable earlier diagnosis using digital and community-based tools  * Support optimal treatment through data and workforce innovation  * Define clear national priorities backed by accountability  CVD is a health challenge and a national prosperity challenge. We cannot afford rising sickness, worsening inequalities, and an NHS stretched by late-stage, preventable disease. The link between health and wealth has never been clearer: investing in CVD prevention will deliver both immediate and long-term returns.  > The link between health and wealth has never been clearer: investing in CVD > prevention will deliver both immediate and long-term returns. The action plan published today provides a clear, evidence-based roadmap.5 It calls for:  * National clinical and political leadership  * Ambitious targets, including a 20 percent reduction in incidence  * Investment in prevention and the expansion of Health Checks  * Improved uptake of effective treatments, guided by data  * Digital and diagnostic excellence across neighborhoods  * Partnership working at every level  A call to action  CVD has affected too many lives for too long. But progress is within reach. The decisions we make today will determine whether the next decade is defined by a widening crisis or a renewed national effort to prevent avoidable illness.  AstraZeneca stands ready to support the government, the NHS and partners to deliver the change our country needs. The time to act is now.  Find out more at astrazeneca.co.uk   References [1] British Heart Foundation. UK factsheet. January 2026. Available at: https://www.bhf.org.uk/-/media/files/for-professionals/research/heart-statistics/bhf-cvd-statistics-uk-factsheet-jan26.pdf.Last accessed: January 2026. [2] British Medical Journal. Early deaths from cardiovascular disease reach 14 year high in England. British Medical Journal. January 2024. Available at: https://www.bmj.com/content/384/bmj.q176. Last accessed: December 2025.   [3] Rising ill-health and economic inactivity because of long-term sickness, UK: 2019 to 2023. Office for National Statistics. Available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peoplenotinwork/economicinactivity/articles/risingillhealthandeconomicinactivitybecauseoflongtermsicknessuk/2019to2023. Last accessed: December 2025.   [4] UK Government. UIN HL5942. March 2025. Available at: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2025-03-18/hl5942. Last accessed: December 2025. [5] Getting to the heart of the matter. A national action plan for tackling cardiovascular disease. AstraZeneca. 2025. Available at: https://qr.short.az/r/Getting-to-the-heart-of-the-matter. Last accessed: January 2026. [6] Blood Pressure UK. Why is know your numbers! needed?. Available at: https://www.bloodpressureuk.org/know-your-numbers/why-is-know-your-numbers-needed/. Last accessed: December 2025.   [7] Department of Health and Social Care. Get your blood pressure checked. March 2024. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/get-your-blood-pressure-checked. Last accessed: December 2025. [8] The Health Foundation. Investing in the public health grant. February 2025. Available at: https://www.health.org.uk/reports-and-analysis/analysis/investing-in-the-public-health-grant. Last Accessed January 2026.  [9] CVDPREVENT. CVDP Annual Audit Report 2025. March 2025. Available at: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/65eafc36395e4d64e18a3232/t/6937fb8666a6d23761182c05/1765276550824/CVDPREVENT+Fifth+Annual+Report.pdf Last Accessed: January 2026. [10] Public Health England. Health matters: preventing cardiovascular disease. February 2019. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/health-matters-preventing-cardiovascular-disease/health-matters-preventing-cardiovascular-disease. Last accessed: December 2025. [11] Tony Blair Institute for Global Change. The economic case for Protect Britain, a preventative health care delivery programme. July 2024. Available at: https://assets.ctfassets.net/75ila1cntaeh/7CcuI38C3mxgps6lC9O2iA/825bf2a41f933cf719459087c1599190/Tony_Blair_Institute_for_Global_Change__The_Economic_Case_for_Protect_Britain__July_2024.pdf Last accessed January 2026 [12] Into-Action.Health. Powering the prevention shift – The CVDACTION impact model.  September 2025. Available at: https://www.into-action.health/_files/ugd/ee4262_81e75612f13e403aab6594727b338771.pdf. Last Accessed January 2026. [13]Data & Improvement Tool. CVDPREVENT. Available at: https://www.cvdprevent.nhs.uk/. Last accessed: December 2025.   [14] Transforming the prevention of CVD. CVDACTION. Health Innovation Network. Available at: https://thehealthinnovationnetwork.co.uk/case_studies/transforming-the-prevention-of-cvd/. Last accessed: December 2025. [15] NHS Business Services Authority. Dispensing contractors’ data. Available at: https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/prescription-data/dispensing-data/dispensing-contractors-data . Last Accessed January 2026 [16] AstraZeneca UK. Executive summary of Joint Working outputs. Pan Leicester Integrated Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) Transformation Project: a quality improvement project to identify CKD patients in primary care suitable for virtual management to improve patient outcomes. (LUCID). July 2024. Available at: https://www.astrazeneca.co.uk/content/dam/intelligentcontent/unbranded/astrazeneca/uk/en/pdf/work-with-nhs-uk/Executive_Summary_of_Joint_Working_Outputs_Pan_Leicester.pdf. Last Accessed: January 2026

People who stop taking weight-loss drugs regain body mass four times faster than those who lost their excess pounds through diet and exercise, according to an analysis of the latest studies. The additional benefits from taking weight-loss drugs, such as improvements in cholesterol and blood pressure, were also reversed when patients quit the medications, the study found. The research, published in the British Medical Journal on Thursday, adds to a growing body of evidence that suggests life-long treatment of obesity is needed to maintain control of the condition. But the high cost of the latest drugs — as well as their side effects — present barriers to long-term use. “We know that obesity is a chronic relapsing condition. We know that when treatment stops, weight is regained. And so, some kind of treatment needs to be continued. What [that] treatment should be, I don’t know,” co-author Susan Jebb, professor of diet and population health at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, told journalists. Rates of obesity and overweight are growing rapidly on the continent, with around 51 percent of people in the EU aged 16 years or over being overweight in 2022. Obesity significantly increases the risk of chronic illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease and cancers, and health systems are struggling to cope. Researchers analyzed weight gain from 37 trials of multiple weight-loss drugs, including older medications and the newer GLP-1s. The latest drugs, including Novo Nordisk’s diabetes and weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro, saw the greatest weight loss and the fastest weight regain when treatment stopped. Compared with another analysis of behavioral weight management programs supporting low energy diets and exercise, weight regain was faster after ending medication than after ending behavioral programs. THE LONG-TERM DILEMMA The newer weight-loss drugs have seen a boom in uptake across Europe and America, despite their high prices. Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro soared in popularity after demonstrating roughly 15 percent weight loss in trials, and were pounced on by celebrities and influencers. However, around half of people who take these drugs will stop them after one year. Side effects such as nausea and vomiting, costs or dissatisfaction with weight loss as it plateaus are driving decisions to halt treatment, lead author Sam West, a postdoctoral researcher also at the Nuffield department at the University of Oxford, told journalists during the briefing. Most people in the U.K. — around 90 percent — pay privately for their weight-loss medication, Jebb said. But those who access it through the National Health Service are subject to a two-year cap on access to the drugs, known as GLP-1s. Similar limits apply in other EU countries. Dimitris Koutoukidis, associate professor in diet, obesity and behavioral sciences at the University of Oxford, suggested the U.K. may not be getting the value for money it envisioned with these weight-loss drugs. The model used to assess whether Lilly and Novo’s medicines were cost-effective assumed people would regain their lost weight after two years, he told journalists — but their study shows weight is regained at around 1.5 years. “It is really hard to treat obesity and keep the weight off long-term,” Jebb said. “That should make us put even more effort into preventing weight gain in the first place. And if we could transform our food environment to make it easier for people to manage their weight it would stop them gaining weight in the first place and help people — after a successful weight loss attempt — to keep it off.” “These treatments are not a whole solution,” she added.

Faced with an ageing population and rising chronic disease rates, Europe wants to make its citizens healthier. It also needs to keep its most powerful industries happy. In the basket of health policies that EU lawmakers rushed to get across the line before Christmas, industry was the big winner: The pharmaceutical, food and drink sectors walked away with a set of major policy wins — and (potentially) healthier profits. While the pharma industry previously feared losing some of its monopoly rights on new drugs, the Commission this month offered it an extra year of patent protection for novel biotech drugs — among the most expensive treatments in the world. The food and drink sectors, meanwhile, successfully pushed back against proposals to tax ultra-processed foods and alcopops, for now. On Dec. 16 the Commission published its Biotech Act and Safe Hearts Plan, which landed just days after a long-awaited update of the pharmaceutical legislation. Taken together, they seek to incentivize industries to innovate and do business in Europe, improve access to medicines, and tackle the burden of cardiovascular disease. The pharma industry broadly celebrated the biotech proposal. The Biotech Act “reflects priorities we’ve intensively advocated to keep Europe globally competitive in life sciences,” Ognjenka Manojlovic, head of policy at European pharmaceutical company Sanofi, told POLITICO. That includes accelerating clinical trials, boosting intellectual property, and strengthening financing for Europe’s biotech ecosystem, Manojlovic said. The pharmaceutical sector had pushed for longer monopoly rights in the pharma legislation. In the end they were kept at the current standard eight years — instead of being cut by two years as the European Commission had initially proposed. For Europe’s public health insurers, who pay for drugs, the decisions taken to maintain and then extend market protections for medicines are hard to square. “We are puzzled by the Commission’s intentions,” said Yannis Natsis, director of the European Social Insurance Platform, a network of Europe’s social insurance organizations, warning that taxpayers will have to pick up the bill. Meanwhile, health campaigners are also unhappy at the Commission’s “missed opportunity” to tackle obesity and heart disease with junk food taxes — as proposed in an earlier draft of the Safe Hearts Plan. Samuele Tonello, at consumer organization BEUC, said the Safe Hearts Plan “lacks teeth” to better protect consumers from unhealthy foods, and flagged the “urgency of [cardiovascular diseases].”  A MAN ON A MISSION Health Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi has made no secret of his support for industry, and has championed the Commission’s competitiveness mantra since taking office in late 2024. Health Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi has made no secret of his support for industry, and has championed the Commission’s competitiveness mantra since taking office in late 2024. | Thierry Monasse/Getty Images The standout feature of his end-of-year bonanza was the 12-month patent extension in the Biotech Act I — legislation that was split in two late in the day, allowing Várhelyi to meet his end-of-year deadline for the pharma component. The proposal came just a week after the Commission, countries and MEPs clinched a deal to reform Europe’s pharmaceutical laws, in which IP rights were among the last issues to be settled. Updates to the pharma laws were a legacy of the last Commission, whereas the Biotech Act became something of a personal mission for Várhelyi. He repeatedly stressed that there was “no time to lose” in delivering a targeted policy aimed at revitalizing Europe’s flagging biotech industry, which risks being overtaken by competition from China and the U.S. Few commissioners are more vocal than Várhelyi about the premium they place on the competitiveness of European industry.  Industry insiders had heard whispers of his plans to expand IP incentives for the biotech sector, even if Council representatives were dismayed not to have been informed in advance — especially with the ink barely dry on the Pharma Package. That’s not to say pharma is happy with its lot. Industry lobby group the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) tempered its praise of the Biotech Act, lamenting that the extra year of monopoly rights would only apply to a “limited subset of products.”  The extra year of protection is tied to the Commission’s efforts to locate more pharma research and manufacturing in Europe. It would apply only to new products, tested and at least partially made in Europe.  But the generics sector, which makes cheaper, off-patent drugs to compete with branded medicines, sees the Biotech Act as a further sweetening of what is already one of the world’s most generous IP systems. Lobby group Medicines for Europe claims each year of delayed competition for the top three biologic drugs would cost countries €7.7 billion. Longer IP “will have a dramatic impact on healthcare budgets and delayed patients’ access to essential medicines,” said Adrian van den Hoven, head of the lobby. These kinds of estimates would normally be included in an impact assessment published alongside the proposal, but in its haste to get the Biotech Act out the Commission didn’t do one. POLITICO asked the Commission for an estimate of what the extra year of patent protection would cost. A Commission spokesperson would not give a figure but said they had used the impact assessment for the pharma legislation as a reference. “It is also important to stress that the number of products eligible for an additional year of SPC will be limited to only those that are truly innovative and tested and manufactured in the EU. The approach is deliberately targeted to incentivise genuinely innovative therapies that deliver a clear added value for patients and support European innovation,” the spokesperson said. LUCKY ESCAPE FOR UPFS The big food and drink sectors are on shakier ground with Várhelyi. The commissioner has repeatedly made known his distaste for ultra-processed food, and an early leaked version of the Safe Hearts Plan included new taxes on unhealthy highly processed foods and alcopops. But the final proposal showed the Commission had undertaken a significant climbdown. Concrete targets to tax unhealthy food and drink in 2026 were gone, replaced with a much woollier commitment to “work towards” such a levy. Alcopops were excluded altogether.  Industry lobby FoodDrinkEurope took a far more measured tone on the final plan than its explosive reactions to the earlier leaks, but that may well ramp up again if and when health tax proposals emerge. The text suggests the soft drinks industry may be the Commission’s first target if it does decide to pursue new levies, while UPFs remain in Várhelyi’s sights. “In the next couple of years, we will need to tackle the issue of ultra-processed food much more,” he told MEPs in December. For now, though, the plan seems to have let industry off easy. Health NGOs saw it as a disappointment, given its lack of hard-hitting policies to reduce consumption of UPFs and other unhealthy products. While the pharma legislation is all wrapped up, the Biotech Act still needs to win the approval of EU countries and the European Parliament. For the food and pharma sectors, the proposals set out this month are confirmation they have allies in the Berlaymont.

The World Health Organization has recommended the use of novel weight-loss drugs to curb soaring obesity rates, and urged pharma companies to lower their prices and expand production so that lower-income countries can also benefit. The WHO’s new treatment guideline includes a conditional recommendation to use the so-called GLP-1s — such as Wegovy, Ozempic and Mounjaro — as part of a wider approach that includes healthy diet, exercise and support from doctors. The WHO described its recommendation as “conditional” due to limited data on the long-term efficacy and safety of GLP-1s. The recommendation excludes pregnant women. While GLP-1s are a now well-established treatment in high-income countries, the WHO warns they could reach fewer than 10 percent of people who could benefit by 2030. Among the countries with the highest rates of obesity are those in the Middle East, Latin America and Pacific islands. Meanwhile, Wegovy was only available in around 15 countries as of the start of this year. The WHO wants pharma companies to consider tiered pricing (lower prices in lower-income countries) and voluntary licensing of patents and technology to allow other producers around the word to manufacture GLP-1s, to help expand access to these drugs. Jeremy Farrar, an assistant director general at the WHO, told POLITICO the guidelines would also give an “amber and green light” to generic drugmakers to produce cheaper versions of GLP-1s when the patents expire. Francesca Celletti, a senior adviser on obesity at the WHO, told POLITICO “decisive action” was needed to expand access to GLP-1s, citing the example of antiretroviral HIV drugs earlier this century. “We all thought it was impossible … and then the price went down,” she said.  Key patents on semaglutide, the ingredient in Novo Nordisk’s diabetes and weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, will lift in some countries next year, including India, Brazil and China. Indian generics giant Dr. Reddy’s plans to launch a generic semaglutide-based weight-loss drug in 87 countries in 2026, its CEO Erez Israeli said earlier this year, reported Reuters. “U.S. and Europe will open later … (and) all the other Western markets will be open between 2029 to 2033,” Israeli told reporters after the release of quarterly earnings in July. Prices should fall once generics are on the market, but that isn’t the only barrier. Injectable drugs, for example, need cold chain storage. And health systems need to be equipped to roll out the drug once it’s affordable, Celletti said. 

LONDON — Milkshakes and lattes will be subject to a sugar tax for the first time, U.K. Health Secretary Wes Streeting said Tuesday. Speaking ahead of the budget, Streeting said the government would remove the exemption that milk-based products currently have from the Soft Drinks Industry Levy in January 2028. The threshold at which the levy is imposed will also be lowered from 5 grams to 4.5 grams (g) per 100 milliliters (ml). Commonly dubbed the “sugar tax,” the levy, which was introduced in 2018 under the previous Conservative government, aims to reduce obesity and improve child health.  “Obesity robs children of the best possible start in life,” Streeting told MPs Tuesday. “It hits the poorest hardest — sets them up for a lifetime of problems.” Bottles and cartons of milkshakes, flavored milk,  sweetened yoghurt drinks, chocolate milk drinks, ready-to-drink coffees and milk substitute drinks will now be eligible for the levy. Drinks prepared in cafes and bars remain out of scope. The levy requires companies producing drinks that contain between 5g and 8g of sugar per 100ml to pay 19.4 pence per liter while drinks with 8g or more of sugar must pay 25.9 pence per liter. A government document published Tuesday said ministers expect the Treasury to raise between £40 million and £45 million a year as a result of the changes. The average sugar content in drinks has fallen by almost 50 percent since the levy’s introduction. It is associated with a fall in rotten tooth extractions in kids and an estimated 8 percent relative reduction in obesity levels among young girls. Sarah Woolnough, chief executive of the King’s Fund health think tank, said the measure was “not only common sense but also a quick win for government and, most importantly, for children and young people.”

Ozempic-maker Novo Nordisk is to lay off 9,000 of its staff, with 5,000 of those coming from its sites in Denmark, the company announced today. The firm has around 78,400 staff worldwide; the redundancies account for 11.5 percent of its workforce. “It is always difficult to see talented and valued colleagues go, but we are convinced that this is the right thing to do for the long-term success of Novo Nordisk,” CEO Mike Doustdar said.  “By realigning our resources now, we will be able to prioritise investments to drive sustainable growth and future innovation for the millions of patients with chronic diseases globally, particularly in diabetes and obesity.” It’s one of Doustdar’s first moves as head of the company after he replaced Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen earlier this year. Jørgensen, who had helmed the Danish drugmaker for eight years, saw Novo become Europe’s most valuable company under his leadership. But the firm saw its share price tumble over the past year amid increased competition in the weight-loss drug market from Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro, and disappointing trial results for its next-generation treatments. “Our markets are evolving, particularly in obesity, as it has become more competitive and consumer-driven. Our company must evolve as well,” Doustdar said. The company said the layoffs would mean a one-off cost of 8 billion danish krone (€1.07 billion) It now expects full-year operating profit growth of 4 percent to 10 percent, down from the 10 percent to 16 percent outlined in August.

Fake weight-loss drugs are increasingly being advertised and sold across the EU, posing a serious public health threat, the bloc’s drugs regulator warned today. The European Medicines Agency said there has been a “sharp rise” in the number of illegal medicines marketed and sold as GLP-1 agonists, such as the popular semaglutide, liraglutide and tirzepatide, in recent months. Authorities have identified hundreds of sham Facebook profiles, advertisements and e-commerce listings promoting the fake drugs. These websites often mislead customers by using official logos and false endorsements, the EMA said. While genuine versions under the brand names Wegovy, Ozempic, Saxenda and Mounjaro are available through legitimate health services and with a prescription, the fake versions are “not authorised and do not meet necessary standards of quality, safety and efficacy,” the agency said. “Such illegal products pose a serious risk to public health. They may not contain the claimed active substance at all and may contain harmful levels of other substances,” the EMA warned. “People who use these products are therefore at a very high risk of treatment failure, unexpected and serious health problems and dangerous interactions with other medicines.”