The writer is managing partner at Bramble Partners

The new generation of appetite-suppressing drugs such as Mounjaro may prove to be the most rapidly adopted genre of pharmaceuticals ever launched into the market. In the space of two years, they have been taken by 2.5mn people in the UK — with one million of those added just in the past six months. That is one in 20 of the adult population.

For comparison, statins — which are arguably more beneficial to overall health — took 17 years to reach that level of penetration. What’s more, most people who take appetite suppressants pay for the privilege: up to ￡3,000 per year. And it is not just the rich: people on lower incomes are cutting back on essentials to pay for these drugs. Demand is so strong that it has spawned a criminal black market almost overnight.