The Lead Untangles: Surging costs in weight loss jabs

Ella Glover tackles an issue which will affect 1.5m people in the UK alone.

Photo by Total Shape on Unsplash

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Britain has seen a mad rush for Mounjaro weight loss jabs as the price of a month’s supply of the highest dose of the drug is set to rise from £122 to £330 in September.

According to the Financial Times, Asda Online Doctor has seen a 350 per cent increase in demand for Mounjaro since the price increase was announced last week, while London-based MedExpress said it had seen a 40 per cent jump in orders, compared with a normal day.

The jump in price is the result of the company which manufactures Mounjaro, Eli Lilly, responding to pressure from President Donald Trump to increase drug prices in Europe and lower them in the US.

The price for the highest dose of the drug will increase by 170 per cent, while prices for lower doses will rise by between 45 per cent and 138 per cent.

While NHS patients will be unaffected, the thousands who pay for weight loss jabs privately will be forced to pay more, stop using the drug, or find a new product.

Context

Weight loss jabs have been hailed a ‘silver bullet’ since they were first approved in 2021. Although there are some people who use the medications as a ‘quick fix,’ they are an extremely effective treatment for obesity and are predicted to significantly cut costs for the NHS in the long term.

They work by mimicking a hormone that’s released after eating called GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1), tricking the brain into thinking you’re full, so you eat less. The two main brands of weight loss jabs in the UK are Mounjaro and Wegovy. The former is slightly different from the latter in that it also mimics another hormone that regulates appetite called GIP (glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide). A recent landmark study found that Mounjaro is more effective for the treatment of obesity.

There are thought to be around 1.5 million people on weight loss drugs in the UK with more than half of them on Mounjaro.

Currently, people living with obesity who have been diagnosed with four weight-related health problems and a BMI of 40 or more (adjusted for ethnicity) can access Mounjaro on the NHS. The criteria is lower for Wegovy. Wes Streeting has promised to make weight loss jabs on the NHS more accessible as part of his 10-year Health Plan.

In some parts of the country, waiting lists for NHS weight management services are up to 20 months, with people waiting years. Some patients – as well as those who would not be eligible on the NHS – choose to access the medication through private online pharmacies. It’s estimated that around nine in 10 patients pay for weight loss jabs privately.

What does the price increase actually do?

Thanks to a deal it struck with Eli Lilly, to a substantial discount for patients taking the drug on prescription, the NHS will not be impacted by the price rise. But those who pay for the drug privately will be forced to either pay more or find an alternative.

Already, people are considering switching to Wegovy. Google Trends shows a +5,500 per cent increase in searches for ‘can I swap from Mounjaro to Wegovy’ since last Thursday, and online pharmacy Chemist4U said it saw a 1,500 per cent increase in patients switching from Mounjaro to Wegovy in just 48 hours.

In the past, demand for weight loss jabs caused a national shortage, impacting not just those looking to lose weight, but people with diabetes and other related illnesses.

At the time, there was a rise in people seeking out black-market alternatives, and it’s not unlikely that the same could happen again. Such products could be harmful at worst and ineffective at best, containing incorrect doses, harmful substances or no active ingredient at all. Meanwhile, those using real weight loss jabs without medical supervision could experience adverse side effects.

Last year, the overall number of adverse reactions linked to weight loss jabs more than doubled in a month, with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency [MHRA] pointing to unregulated products and off-label use driving the harms.

What are people saying?

Professor Claire Anderson, president of the Royal Pharmacist Society (RPS), said: “It’s reassuring that NHS patients with obesity and type 2 diabetes will continue to access Mounjaro.

“However, rising private prescription costs may make Mounjaro unaffordable for people in deprived areas already struggling to pay for it.”

Professor Tim Spector, a nutrition expert at King’s College London, said: “The price rise of the GLP-1 drugs comes at a tricky time for the million-plus Britons that have started taking the drugs.

“Any losses in weight they will have achieved will be reversed in just a few weeks, as their appetite kicks back in.

“People are being prompted to use these private networks of GLP-1 drugs without any real supervision, and, crucially, without any nutritional support.”

Dr Leyla Hannbeck, head of the Independent Pharmacies Association. said: "This is a real blow to patients at a time when more and more people, worried about their weight, are turning to jabs.

“It is vital that patients who are already taking Mounjaro talk to their local pharmacy before they take any action.

“Those patients considering weight-loss jabs should also not be put off as Mounjaro is not the only option. Local pharmacies are best placed to offer vital advice about the range of treatments available.”

What’s next?

According to the Telegraph, the NHS will respond to the price increase by prescribing Mounjaro to more people. It also reported that the government is looking to intervene in the price rise.

Prices will rise on 1 September, and private providers are still figuring out how the price will be passed on to consumers.

About The Lead Untangles: In an era where misinformation is actively and deliberately used by elected politicians and where advocates and opposers of beliefs state their point of view as fact, sometimes the most useful tool reporters have is to help readers make sense of the world.

The Lead Untangles is delivered each Friday by The Lead and focuses on a different complex, divisive issue with each edition. Is there something you’d like us to untangle, email ed@thelead.uk

About the author: Ella is a freelance journalist specialising in worker's rights, housing, youth culture, social affairs and lifestyle. You can find her work in Tribune Magazine, Huck Magazine, Novara Media, VICE, Dazed, metro.co.uk and - most importantly - here at The Lead.