Pharmacists have been “inundated” with years’ worth of prescription requests for the weight-loss drug Mounjaro as regular users become increasingly desperate to secure it before the price increases.
Dr Leyla Hannbeck, chief executive of the Independent Pharmacies Association, which represents thousands of high-street sites in England and Wales, said many pharmacists had been “thrown into chaos” and were dealing with “an impossible amount of prescription requests” after the company Eli Lilly said it would be increasing the price of the jab.
“Pharmacists have become inundated,” she said. “People are repeatedly asking to get supply to take them through several months. I have had pharmacists reporting that they’ve seen prescriptions worth six months or more, but there’s obviously not enough stock. We are very worried patients will look to black-market sites. We already know this is happening.”
One woman who works in a pharmacy claimed she had ordered £7,000 of Mounjaro in the past few days and had already sold it.
Eli Lilly, the American manufacturer of the drug, said that the price of Mounjaro charged to pharmacies would change after a demand from President Trump that pharmaceutical companies stop allowing other countries to “freeload”. The rate for a 5mg dose, the third-largest, will nearly double from £92 to £180 from September 1 while the maximum dose, 15mg, will increase from £122 to £330.
On Wednesday the company told its two British wholesalers to temporarily stop taking orders after demand soared.
City of London police said they had confiscated more than £32,000 worth of weight-loss drugs believed to have been illegally sold in the UK after a woman was found to have been advertising counterfeit goods online at significantly reduced prices.
Eli Lilly’s factory in Co Cork
NIALL CARSON/PA
It was later discovered that an organised crime group had been involved in the sale and distribution of the medicines without a prescription or licence from the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency.
The products had allegedly been shipped via a Lancashire-based fulfilment company that provides storage and distribution services, then sold to members of the public without any health and safety consultation.
On Thursday officers seized roughly £32,000 worth of what was believed to be counterfeit Mounjaro, Ozempic and Retatrutide. Further analysis showed the products contained more than four times the recommended dose.
A freedom of information request also revealed that the UK Border Force seized approximately 18,300 illegal weight-loss and diabetes medications between January 2024 and June 2025.
Mounjaro, a brand name for tirzepatide, is a prescription-only medicine in the UK and can only be obtained legally with a prescription from a registered healthcare professional.
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Jeanie Annan-Lewin, a freelance stylist and creative consultant who struggled to lose weight because of fibroids and polycystic ovary syndrome, said she would have to make “lifestyle changes” to afford the new price tag.
“The price for me will go up by £100 a month,” she said. “I haven’t stockpiled at the moment because I don’t have enough money to do that. That’s £300 a month on top of rents and bills and the current cost of the living crisis.
“This has been the only effective thing I’ve used. I’ve lost up to three stone. I need to stay on it until I get to my target weight and then I can wean myself off of it. I’m trying to do this properly. I’m just going to have to cut something else out of my life and replace it. Because this is the only thing that’s worked.”