Pharmacies are already facing huge demand for weight-loss pills as the tablets go on sale for the first time, in a move doctors say will transform access to the drug in the UK.
Chemists are bracing for a surge of thousands of new patients coming forward for weight-loss medication when Wegovy pills go on sale from £79 a month on Monday.
However, patients struggling to afford these tablets may have to wait until 2028 to get them on the NHS, experts told The i Paper.
The slow roll-out of weight-loss medication on the NHS risks a “two-tier” gap between those who can and cannot afford private prescriptions, they warned.
Huge demand and pre-order sales for pills
The weight-loss pills have been hailed as “transformational” by doctors and pharmacists. However, experts warned increased demand for Wegovy in tablet form could result in wider misuse of the drug, as well as risking more counterfeit versions on the black market.
The pills are viewed as more convenient than injections – which are used by more than 1.5 million Britons – since they do not require refrigeration. Daily tablets also appeal to people who have a phobia about jabs, say experts.
Superdrug Online Doctor is selling the 1.5mg starting dose of the Wegovy pill at £99 a month for existing patients. New patients can get the same dose for £79 a month.
The 4mg “step-up” dose is £119 a month for existing patients. Higher doses costing up to £229 a month will be available soon. Other pharmacies are selling the pills at a similar price range.
Simple Online Pharmacy said it had already approved pre-orders from around 10,000 customers, ready to be dispatched this week. A significant number of people had been waiting for an “oral alternative” to jabs before starting weight-loss medication, it added.
Daily tablets appeal to people who have a phobia about using injection pens, say experts (Photo: Matthew Horwood/Getty)Olivier Picard, chair of the National Pharmacy Association, said there was “huge demand” for the tablets.
“The convenience of a daily pill will appeal to those trying to lose weight,” he said. “It seems inevitable that pills for weight loss will be approved [for use by the NHS] at some stage. It will add to the pressure on the NHS to treat more people with weight-loss medications.”
Dr Leyla Hannbeck, chief executive of the Independent Pharmacies Association, said: “The Wegovy pill is set to be transformational. Pharmacists across the country are already seeing significant interest from patients and many pharmacies have placed large orders.
“Pharmacies are anticipating demand both from existing users switching from jabs but also from new patients who have previously been deterred by the thought of having to inject themselves.”
Wegovy’s pill became the first such tablet to be approved by the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) last month.
But the tablets, manufactured by Danish company Novo Nordisk, will not be available on the NHS until they are approved by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice).
Wegovy injections containing semaglutide are available through NHS specialist weight management services. However, health campaigners have complained about a “postcode lottery” for these treatments.
Mounjaro jabs are available from GPs, but complex b ody mass index (BMI) restrictions are in place, prioritising only those with the highest clinic need.
In 2024, NHS England said that up to 3.4 million people might eventually be eligible for weight-loss drugs but it would take 12 years before it could ease restrictions for the entire cohort.
Only 220,000 people will benefit from the drugs in the first three years under current roll-out targets.
Former health secretary Wes Streeting had suggested he wanted weight-loss pills available on the NHS, telling The i Paper last year that he would like patients to get access to the new treatments “as quickly as possible”.
NHS approval ‘unlikely’ before 2028
Jason Murphy, head of pharmacy at Chemist4U said it was “unlikely” that the new weight-loss pills “will be available on the NHS until 2028”.
He said there was “an assumed timeframe” of 18 months for NICE approval and a plan by the NHS for eligibility.
“However, they may come sooner given the impact that these medications are likely to have on solving the UK’s obesity crisis,” he added.
Sarah Le Brocq, director of the All About Obesity campaign group, said she hoped that the process does not take so long – suggesting the pills could be available on the NHS in 2027.
Le Brocq wants extra NHS investment to speed up the roll-out of weight-loss drugs. “I worry we’re creating a two-tier system where people who can afford these medications can improve their health, but people on lower incomes cannot.”
Prof Naveed Sattar said it could take “a year or two” for the new weight-loss pills to become available on the NHS.
“It’s partly about the time it takes to go through a very careful approval process. It will partly be about cost for NICE,” said the specialist in cardiometabolic medicine at the University of Glasgow.
“The NHS hasn’t got a magic money tree. There will be a hope that competition between providers on the market will bring down cost over time.”
The NHS roll-out of weight loss drugs remains “extremely slow” and overstretched GPs are “struggling to treat many people”, said Picard.
Community pharmacists could help widen access if they were allow to proscribe the drugs for the NHS, he added. “We are ready to support a much wider roll-out.”
Pills not ‘quick fix’ for slimming, experts warn
The price of Wegovy pills are roughly the same as injections. But there are hopes that the shift to tablets will bring down manufacturing costs of weight-loss medication.
However, there are concerns that widening access could lead to more people who don’t need the drug taking it for cosmetic reasons.
NHS England’s former director Stephen Power previously warned that some non-obese people were using weight-loss drugs unnecessarily to get “beach-body ready”.
Prof Victoria Tzortziou Brown, president of the Royal College of GPs, warned the new pills were not a “quick fix”.
She said any NHS roll-out of the tablets – if approved – would be based on clinical need and have to be “properly resourced” by the Government.
The arrival of the new pills could also expand the black market for fake weight-loss drugs, experts have also warned.
Tablets are easier to counterfeit than jabs, said Bhavik Patel, a professor of clinical and bioanalytical chemistry at the University of Brighton. “For criminal gangs, pills are their bread and butter,” he said.
Novo Nordisk said it was taking action to tackle counterfeits – including monitoring websites and sharing information about supply chains with law enforcement.
On its new weight-loss pills, Novo Nordisk said it was “committed to expanding access for eligible patients”.
A NICE spokesperson said it was in “active dialogue” with Novo Nordisk, but said the company had not made an approval submission for the Wegovy pills for NHS use. NHS England declined to comment.
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