Britain’s pharmacy regulator has adopted more stringent prescription measures to prevent medicines from being supplied “inappropriately”, meaning people will no longer be able to get weight-loss jabs just by completing a simple online questionnaire.
The change comes as groups – including the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) – demanded tougher rules after learning of people, who already had a low body weight or those who previously had eating disorders, being wrongly prescribed the drugs
The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) said there were reports that some people were obtaining the drugs without thorough checks, and that online pharmacies even had targets for how many prescriptions should be processed per hour, reports The Independent.
The GPhC has told online pharmacies they can now only prescribe the weight-loss drugs after a proper two-way consultation with the patient, at which they must verify the patient’s body mass index via either a video consultation, an in-person assessment or by accessing medical records.
The move, which is intended to make sure injections like Wegovy or Mounjaro are prescribed safely, means it will no longer be enough to prescribe the drugs after email correspondence, a phone call, from questionnaires, or by people sending in photos of themselves.
Duncan Rudkin, chief executive at the GPhC, said the updated guidance would help protect patients.
“The message of this updated guidance is clear: online pharmacies should only supply a medicine if the prescriber has had an appropriate consultation with the person, and made sure they have all the necessary information to check if that medicine is safe and suitable for them,” he said.
“Online pharmacy services can provide a very valuable service, but through our inspections and investigations, we’ve seen too many cases of medicines being supplied inappropriately online and putting people at risk.”
The new rules also state that clinicians must ask for details of the patient’s GP and get the patient’s consent to contact them about the prescription.
It also said all pharmacies must demonstrate there are no conflicts of interest such as offering “incentives to prescribers to issue prescriptions”.
The GPhC said it was working closely with both the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to jointly tackle inappropriate advertising and promotions.
The Independent article – Weight loss jab patients to face tougher pharmacy checks (Open access)
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