Thousands of people began receiving their first deliveries of the once-a-day Wegovy weight-loss pill on Monday, after the medication went on sale at high street and online pharmacies across the UK. Made by Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk, the pill contains the same active ingredient, semaglutide, as the Wegovy injection and is similarly effective, according to studies. It was approved by the UK’s medicines regulator on 11 June, but is not yet available on the NHS.
The pill can be prescribed privately to people with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 and above – generally considered obese – or a BMI of 27 to 30 (overweight) if they also have weight-related health conditions such as type 2 diabetes or high blood pressure. A consultation, either online or face-to-face, is required, and the medication is advised to be used alongside a healthy diet and increased physical activity.
“Wegovy weight-loss pill launches in UK private pharmacies; thousands receive first deliveries.”
But the pill comes with strict administration guidelines: it must be taken on an empty stomach after not eating for at least eight hours, with a sip of up to 120ml of plain water – not fizzy water, coffee or tea – and swallowed whole. Patients must then wait at least 30 minutes before eating or drinking anything else or taking other tablets. The chief clinical officer at Simple Online Pharmacy, Abdal Alvi, said: “The Wegovy pill is a major development because it gives patients another way to access semaglutide without self-injecting. But it is not a tablet you can simply take with breakfast or your morning coffee. The way it is taken has a direct impact on how well the medication is absorbed, so patients need to understand the routine from day one.”
The public has been warned about the dangers of fake pills sold online. Megan Rannard at the intellectual property law firm Marks & Clerk said: “There are a large number of websites that falsely claim to be legitimate online pharmacies and that advertise medication to the public without a consultation or a prescription, and at very low prices. There is a risk that these types of websites will sell consumers counterfeit pharmaceuticals which present a clear public health risk, or that these websites are simply a front for other types of fraud or phishing scams.”
Prices for the Wegovy pill vary: through some multi-month treatment plans it works out at £2.30 a day, with a month’s supply ranging from £69 for a three-month bundle of the 1.5mg starting dose to £189 for the highest dose of 25mg. By comparison, Wegovy jabs cost between £79 and £250 for a month’s supply, and Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro jab costs between £54 and £300 a month. Eli Lilly launched its own weight-loss pill, Foundayo (orforglipron), in the US earlier this year, but the Wegovy pill is the first to reach UK shelves. Side effects with both the pill and injection include stomach problems such as nausea, vomiting, constipation and diarrhoea, and more rarely, low blood sugar, pancreatitis or severe complications.