Pharmacies in the UK are \u201cbracing themselves\u201d for a surge in patients starting weight loss drugs as the Wegovy pill becomes available.<\/p>\n
Pharmacists also warned the new form of semaglutide could lead to a rise in fake or unlicensed weight loss pills being sold on the black market.<\/p>\n
The Wegovy tablet, made by Novo Nordisk, became the first GLP-1 pill for weight loss to be approved by the UK\u2019s medicines regulator last month.<\/p>\n
The starting dose is 1.5 milligrams, rising to 4 mg, 9 mg and 25 mg \u2013 with patients required to be on each dose level for at least a month before going up.<\/p>\n
From Monday, the lowest doses \u2013 1.5 mg and 4 mg \u2013 will be available as part of weight management programmes in some pharmacies to eligible patients.<\/p>\n
However, a survey of 310 pharmacies by the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) found 76% expect to start a significant number of new eligible patients on the pill in the coming months.<\/p>\n
Around half (49%) told the poll they had experienced a surged in queries from people hoping to start treatment following Medicines Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) approval in June.<\/p>\n
Olivier Picard, chairman of the NPA, said: \u201cThis is a significant day and pharmacies are bracing themselves for a surge in demand for this new form of weight loss treatment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is particularly significant for patients who cannot or do not want to take an injectable medicine.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe NHS rollout remains extremely slow, and community pharmacy is ready to support a wider rollout, which will help eligible patients access treatment safely and help mitigate the impact of obesity on the NHS.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, some 97% of the pharmacies who responded said they are concerned the pill form of Wegovy could lead to an increase in fake pills being sold.<\/p>\n
The NPA urged patients to only access the drug through regulated pharmacies after a thorough consultation.<\/p>\n
Picard said: \u201cAs this survey shows, pharmacies are concerned about a dangerous and growing black market for weight loss medicines, with tablet form of medication likely to be easier for criminals to counterfeit.<\/p>\n
\u201cPatients should be wary of sites offering medicines at a cost that is too good to be true or providers who are not offering consultations before prescribing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf anyone is concerned by a medicine they have bought online, they should speak to their local pharmacist for advice.<\/p>\n
\u201cWeight loss medication is not a silver bullet and won\u2019t be suitable for all patients but it can help those who are eligible achieve a healthy weight, along with sustained changes to diet and lifestyle.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pharmacies in the UK are \u201cbracing themselves\u201d for a surge in patients starting weight loss drugs as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":534898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[98583,103,61,60,10416,40031,227414,10033,227415,14955,2114,14650,15769],"class_list":["post-534897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-eligible-patients","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-novo-nordisk","tag-npa","tag-olivier-picard","tag-pharmacies","tag-regulatory-agency","tag-wegovy","tag-weight-loss","tag-weight-management","tag-weight-loss-drugs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=534897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}