Novo Nordisk’s once-a-day Wegovy semaglutide pill went on sale at high street and online pharmacies in the UK on Monday. Thousands of people began receiving their first deliveries the same day, giving overweight or obese adults a private tablet option instead of an injection.
Megan Rannard on fake pharmacies
The pill was approved by the UK’s medicines regulator on 11 June and can be prescribed privately after a medical consultation alongside a healthy diet and exercise. It is not yet available on an NHS prescription, and the launch comes after the drug first became available in the US at the start of the year.
Megan Rannard of Marks & Clerk warned that the launch also creates an opening for fake sellers. She 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.” She added: “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 a simply a front for other types of fraud or phishing scams.”
Abdal Alvi on semaglutide
Abdal Alvi, chief clinical officer at Simple Online Pharmacy, 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.”
Patients must take the pill with a sip of water after fasting for at least eight hours, then wait at least half an hour before eating, drinking anything else or taking other medication. At Juniper UK, tens of thousands of people had already signed up for an initial consultation before the launch. Pharmacists say the daily tablet is a more convenient option for people who are nervous about needles, travel regularly or prefer a tablet to a weekly injection.
Wegovy prices in the UK
Price will decide how widely the pill is taken privately. In the UK, it works out at £2.30 a day through some multi-month treatment plans, with prices ranging from £69 for a month’s supply as part of a three-month bundle for the 1.5mg starting dose to £189 for the highest dose of 25mg.
That compares with online pharmacy prices of £79 to £250 a month for Wegovy jabs and £54 to £300 a month for Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro jab. In clinical trials, people taking the 25mg daily pill lost between 14% and 17% of their body weight over 64 weeks depending on adherence, while the most common side effects were gastrointestinal disorders including nausea, diarrhoea, constipation and vomiting.
The private launch gives readers a clear choice: buy through a legitimate pharmacy after a consultation, or avoid sites offering prescription medicine at very low prices without one. The daily tablet is now on sale, but the NHS route has not opened, so access for most people will depend on private prescribing and the safeguards they choose around where they buy it.
