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An AI health platform and online pharmacy has launched a “dedicate consumer sub-brand” focusing on GLP-1 weight management medicines and other peptides, backed by a £1.3m marketing campaign.

MedPal AI, which took over the running of two insolvent distance-selling pharmacies last year, announced yesterday (May 20) that its New Health brand seeks to capitalise on “rapid growth” in the market for GLP-1s and “broader peptide medicines”.

CEO Jason Drummond said the move comes ahead of the anticipated UK approval of Novo Nordisk’s once-a-day Wegovy pill this summer.

The company said the new brand, which will sit separately from its MedPal Clinic app and consumer platform, has been created “to give the company a sharper consumer brand, acquisition funnel and patient journey for the highly competitive GLP-1 category” while using MedPal’s existing assessment and prescribing infrastructure.

It cited estimates that the UK prescription weight loss market is expected to grow from approximately £313m in 2025 to £1.85bn by 2033.

Mr Drummond said: “This market is highly competitive and brand-led, so we need a consumer proposition that can compete on the same terms.

“MedPal AI remains the operating system for personal health. New Health is the specialist point of access for patients seeking GLP-1 weight management support and, over time, broader peptide-led healthcare services where clinically appropriate.

“Over £1.3m marketing investment is designed to build New Health as a scalable consumer channel, not as generic corporate advertising.

“The market data supports the timing: published research points to rapid UK and global growth in prescription weight management medicines, and the board anticipates that the expected UK approval of Novo Nordisk’s oral Wegovy pill this summer could bring a new cohort of patients into the category.

“We will monitor traffic, conversion, customer acquisition cost, retention and gross contribution in real time and will scale spend only where the unit economics, governance and capacity support it.”