Patients are in danger if they buy weight loss drugs online, according to the National Pharmacy Association.
The organisation has written to the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) saying current rules leave the door open for medicines like Wegovy or Mounjaro to be supplied without appropriate checks “and the risk to patient safety remains”.
This Site has discussed Mounjaro in the recent past, when it was claimed that online sales and unsupervised use had led to hundreds of people being hospitalised because of side-effects like stomach upsets, nausea and gallstones.
At the end of November last year, the total number of people known to be suffering adverse reactions was said to be 15,000.
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
The NPA has said it was aware of people who previously had eating disorders, or whose body weight was already low, being wrongly prescribed the drugs. The organisation said a two-way consultation with the patient lasting at least 20 minutes is needed rather than relying on online questionnaires.
And in a sideswipe to the unregulated online pharmacies, the NPA also claimed it is important to ensure that clinical decisions regarding weight loss injections are not influenced by financial targets or incentives. There are also concerns that these organisations may be selling fake drugs.
The alarm being raised is particularly concerning when one remembers that Mounjaro has been implicated in the death of a nurse.
The number of health problems associated with that drug is particularly concerning because the Department of Health and Social Care is planning to roll it out nationally after a five-year trial in Greater Manchester – even though it is actually a treatment for for type 2 diabetes – and then only when three other medications have failed to help – and not for obesity at all.
It works by helping the body to produce more insulin when needed. It also reduces the amount of glucose, or sugar, produced by the liver, and slows down how quickly food is digested – and this is the apparent reason for the trial.
The planned weight-loss trial places strict limits on who is eligible to have the drug: during the first three years, it would be limited to people with a body mass index (BMI) of more than 40 kg/m2 and at least three weight-related health problems: hypertension, dyslipidaemia, obstructive sleep apnoea, or cardiovascular disease.
Mounjaro would then be offered to people with a BMI of more than 40 kg/m2 plus two weight-related health problems, and then to people with a BMI of more than 40 kg/m2 plus one weight-related health problem.
It would not be offered to people with diabetes – those most likely to benefit from it – for at least another three years.
Concerns have been raised that the plan considers people according to their potential economic value, rather than their needs – and that it may be simply medicalising the obesity problem.
Avoiding this would require recipients of the treatment to learn how to eat well and get into the habit of exercising – and to stick to both, whether on the medication or not.
Are these online pharmacies providing this service to their customers?
If not, then a lot of people are likely to get into a lot of trouble – some of them due to the government.
And this is at a time when the government is trying to reduce the number of people receiving benefit payments due to ill-health. Considered this way, doesn’t it seem that Labour is trying to set a trap – deliberately making people ill and then refusing to support them through their sickness?
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Patients are in danger if they buy weight loss drugs online
Patients are in danger if they buy weight loss drugs online, according to the National Pharmacy Association.
The organisation has written to the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) saying current rules leave the door open for medicines like Wegovy or Mounjaro to be supplied without appropriate checks “and the risk to patient safety remains”.
This Site has discussed Mounjaro in the recent past, when it was claimed that online sales and unsupervised use had led to hundreds of people being hospitalised because of side-effects like stomach upsets, nausea and gallstones.
At the end of November last year, the total number of people known to be suffering adverse reactions was said to be 15,000.
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
The NPA has said it was aware of people who previously had eating disorders, or whose body weight was already low, being wrongly prescribed the drugs. The organisation said a two-way consultation with the patient lasting at least 20 minutes is needed rather than relying on online questionnaires.
And in a sideswipe to the unregulated online pharmacies, the NPA also claimed it is important to ensure that clinical decisions regarding weight loss injections are not influenced by financial targets or incentives. There are also concerns that these organisations may be selling fake drugs.
The alarm being raised is particularly concerning when one remembers that Mounjaro has been implicated in the death of a nurse.
The number of health problems associated with that drug is particularly concerning because the Department of Health and Social Care is planning to roll it out nationally after a five-year trial in Greater Manchester – even though it is actually a treatment for for type 2 diabetes – and then only when three other medications have failed to help – and not for obesity at all.
It works by helping the body to produce more insulin when needed. It also reduces the amount of glucose, or sugar, produced by the liver, and slows down how quickly food is digested – and this is the apparent reason for the trial.
The planned weight-loss trial places strict limits on who is eligible to have the drug: during the first three years, it would be limited to people with a body mass index (BMI) of more than 40 kg/m2 and at least three weight-related health problems: hypertension, dyslipidaemia, obstructive sleep apnoea, or cardiovascular disease.
Mounjaro would then be offered to people with a BMI of more than 40 kg/m2 plus two weight-related health problems, and then to people with a BMI of more than 40 kg/m2 plus one weight-related health problem.
It would not be offered to people with diabetes – those most likely to benefit from it – for at least another three years.
Concerns have been raised that the plan considers people according to their potential economic value, rather than their needs – and that it may be simply medicalising the obesity problem.
Avoiding this would require recipients of the treatment to learn how to eat well and get into the habit of exercising – and to stick to both, whether on the medication or not.
Are these online pharmacies providing this service to their customers?
If not, then a lot of people are likely to get into a lot of trouble – some of them due to the government.
And this is at a time when the government is trying to reduce the number of people receiving benefit payments due to ill-health. Considered this way, doesn’t it seem that Labour is trying to set a trap – deliberately making people ill and then refusing to support them through their sickness?
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (bottom right of the home page). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
5) Follow Vox Political writer Mike Sivier on BlueSky
6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical
7) Feel free to comment!
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:
The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
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