Britain will study whether the use of Eli Lilly’s weight-loss drug could get people back into work and help tackle high rates of long-term disease that has become a major drain on the economy.

British Health Minister Wes Streeting predicted that the use of the drug – a competitor to Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic – could help transform the country’s health, as part of a major summit organized by Lilly in the UK worth £279 million ($ 365 million) after Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced the investment.

The deal included “a major real-world study in obesity” on the effectiveness of tirazeptide, which was marketed in the UK under the name Monzaro.

“The long-term benefits of these drugs could be important in our approach to tackling obesity,” Streeting wrote in an article in the Telegraph newspaper.

“For many people, these weight-loss vaccines will change lives, helping them return to work, and reducing demands on our NHS.”

The University of Manchester will coordinate the study and collect data on “health-related quality of life and changes in participants’ employment status and sick days from work”.

Earlier this month, England’s National Health Service (NHS) outlined plans to give the drug to nearly a quarter of a million people as part of a three-year plan.

Streeting said that while the drug would be a tool to tackle obesity, people would also need to make lifestyle changes so as not to put further strain on a state-run health service already struggling for years.

“Along with the right to access these new medicines, we all must continue to have a responsibility to take healthy living more seriously,” Streeting said.

“The NHS cannot be expected to always monitor unhealthy lifestyles.”