Decisions on how these drugs will be used look likely to shape our future health and even what our society might look like.
And, as researchers are finding, they are already toppling the belief that obesity is simply a moral failing of the weak-willed.
Weight-loss drugs are already at the heart of the national debate. This week, the new Labour government suggested they could be a tool to help obese people in England off benefits and back into work.
That announcement – and the reaction to it – has held a mirror up to our own personal opinions around obesity and what should be done to tackle it.
Here are some questions I’d like you to ponder.
Is obesity something that people bring on themselves and they just need to make better life choices? Or is it a societal failing with millions of victims that needs stronger laws to control the types of food we eat?
Are effective weight-loss drugs the sensible choice in an obesity crisis? Are they being used as a convenient excuse to duck the big issue of why so many people are overweight in the first place?
