Professor Naveed Sattar appointed UK Government Obesity Mission Chair
Published: 7 November 2023
Professor Naveed Sattar, Professor of Metabolic Medicine at the School of Cardiovascular & Metabolic Health at the University of Glasgow, has been appointed as the UK Government’s new Obesity Mission Chair.
Professor Naveed Sattar, Professor of Metabolic Medicine at the School of Cardiovascular & Metabolic Health at the University of Glasgow, has been appointed as the UK Government’s new Obesity Mission Chair.
Building on over 25 years academic experience and expertise, Professor Sattar will drive forward UK efforts to explore how promising innovations can be accelerated to improve long-term health outcomes for people living with obesity and associated conditions, including cardiovascular disease. As Obesity Mission Chair he will also ensure that the UK is a world-class location to trial, pilot and rollout medical innovation, benefitting patients and the NHS.
Professor Sattar’s role is one of five sets of healthcare Mission Chairs established to drive progress and innovation to address the most pressing healthcare challenges facing the UK and the world set out in the Life Science Vision (2021) – with the other Chairs focusing on mental health, addiction, dementia and cancer.
The Obesity Healthcare mission is backed by £20m of UK Government funding and will follow the successful Vaccine Taskforce style approach in harnessing the power of the UK’s life sciences sector and world-leading research expertise to drive medical breakthroughs, improve outcomes for patients and ease existing pressures on the system.
With Professor Sattar's expert input and leadership, work is already underway in partnership with the National Institute for Health and Care Research to commission the development of a Phase 2 pre-licence platform to accelerate pharmaceutical and digital innovations for obesity. Professor Sattar will also oversee the research evaluation for the recently announced obesity pilots, delivered by NHS England, that seek to generate high quality evidence to support testing service delivery models, outside of hospital settings that can increase access to the newest and most effective obesity drugs for patients living with obesity.
Professor Sattar said: "I am delighted to chair the Obesity Mission as obesity is perhaps the major cause of multiple long-term conditions in the UK. I want to help promote the UK as an excellent place to do obesity research with its connectivity, high quality health records and academic talent. There are few places better for companies than the UK to best determine the benefits of new weight loss methods – be they technological or pharmaceutical.
“Our work, which seeks to find new and better ways to combat obesity for people and for society through new innovation, will ultimately benefit patients and the NHS.”
Enquiries: ali.howard@glasgow.ac.uk or elizabeth.mcmeekin@glasgow.ac.uk / 0141 330 6557 or 0141 330 4831
First published: 7 November 2023
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