To think weight-loss injections should be prescribed in person only. The scale of abuse must be shocking.

[Thisisdrugabuse]

Hear me out here. I have had 5 friends in their 30s and 40s tell me they're using weight-loss injections from online sources. Fine. Except one is a size 8 and another a size 10. Oh, it's so easy to get, just upload a photo of a day you looked chubbier a few years ago and change your height/ weight a bit. Out of my friends that recently told me they're taking it, the size 8 is on the highest dose. She looks ill. Only 1 is over a size 14 I'd say.

Am I being unreasonable

No-to think these medicines are not licensed for normal sized people. They might be at risk of osteoporosis, liver problems and who knows what else. It all seems dangerous and completely unregulated.

Yes- jog on op. These are important medicines helping lots of people and if people lie, that's their issue.

Meanwhile big food companies are working overtime to invent eatable substances which can overcome the reduction in appetite caused by weight loss injections.

Wow - have you any links to this? Agree - it’s pretty obvious that lots of people are feeling disadvantaged due to the jabs despite the health benefits.
Guess eating clean ish - would help overcome some of this.

Or the young woman isn’t aware of how much she drank, or she is fully aware and is deliberately saying she had less than she did.

Agree completely. I know plenty of people who are on MJ and consume moderate amounts of alcohol.

Yesterday I drank a lot of alcohol
i had a terrible headache around 1am and this morning I'm definitely hungover but otherwise all as expected 😆

I can't find anywhere that tells you the proportion of users who obtained WLI by lying or buying from an unreliable source, but I do think the OP has a point if this means that there will be a shortage for those who actually qualify.

Only today I heard on radio news that the demand for WLI was becoming unsustainable that it may outstrip supply.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/weigh-loss-jabs-pharmacy-injections-b2796955.html

If there is a shortage then those on it for diabetes should be prioritised. But Lily will be working very hard to fill demand, they know they only have a few years to milk the cash cow before generics get licensed.

@xsquared that article is mainly talking about increased demand from people who don’t meet the criteria at all for WLI and are likely to try to lie to obtain prescription-only medication or access medication from dodgy sources. Increased demand from people who don’t qualify isn’t going to cause a shortage of medication for those that do qualify, especially if pharmacies continue to tighten their application processes.

Agree with @SilenceInside , the article does not actually talk about supply issues.

Worth remembering Eli Lilly is aggressively rolling out this medication to huge countries like India, the UK demand is tiny compared to places like that.

Any recent delays in the supply chain have been down to planning by either our providers or their wholesalers rather than Eli Lilly themselves.

@AirborneElephant don't think it is, or should be, quite as black and white as that. In the unlikely event of supply shortages, those on it for diabetes some (not all) may have alternative medications they can be supplied with to control blood sugars, for some people who are morbidly obese with multiple weight related conditions may have as many urgent health risks as someone with diabetes. How do you choose? Obviously those with lower BMIs and no health conditions are less at risk. The NHS isn't really setup to make those choices effectively for all patients across all UK countries quickly either. Lets just hope there are no shortages!

If that demand is being met, that is, if those who manage to tweak the numbers to put their BMI in the 30+ brackets, then are they not potentially reducing the supply for those who are genuinely 30+? Or am I getting the wrong end of the stick here?

I doubt there’s enough people managing to find ways to fake their BMIs to affect supply in that way. And pharmacies would be able to prevent that by doing more thorough checks for those near the cut off boundary if they felt they were being pushed to manage to supply enough 2.5mg doses. The only shortages I have seen are some pharmacies occasionally not having enough of the higher doses, 12.5 and 15mg. That’s down to their own planning though and not a manufacturer issue. The higher doses are more expensive to buy wholesale, so I guess some pharmacies may deliberately keep stock lower of those, for cost reasons.

I am curious about what proportion of weight-loss injections are prescribed to men compared to women. I would have thought that it would be fairly equal via the NHS but anecdotally I only know of women who buy it privately. I suppose men might just be less likely to talk about it but I suspect it's far more likely to be predominantly women who would be willing to pay.