A medicine that can help people with obesity to lose weight is not being offered to children in the Netherlands, even though it can make a major difference to their lives, current affairs show Nieuwsuur said at the weekend.

The drug Saxenda is administered as a daily injection and helps stop hunger pangs, leading users to lose 5% to 10% of their body weight. But at a cost of €300 a month, health insurers have decided only to pick up the bill for adults, even though its use has been approved for the over 12s.

Some 120,000 children in the Netherlands are seriously overweight. Obesity increases the risk of developing diabetes 2, high blood pressure and types of cancer, and children whom are very overweight are more likely to be the victim of discrimination, low self esteem and depression.

Doctors are only prescribing the drug to children if they have been obese for so long that their hormonal system has become disturbed. “Then you cannot get back to a healthy weight with lifestyle changes alone,” doctor Erica van den Akker told the broadcaster. “But the medicine can offer a way out.”

However, if children are prescribed the drug, their parents have to pick up the bill themselves. For children whose parents cannot pay, gastric bypass surgery remains the only option.

The drug’s manufacturers Novo Nordisk have not yet requested that the drug be included in the basic health insurance package, which is determined by the government. The Danish firm said that when the request for adults was made, the drug had not yet been licenced for children. This was done in 2021.

The company told Nieuwsuur it planned to submit a request for its use by children but did not say when.

Once included the basic package, the drug will be available to children free of charge.