Sharing pens

[Happytotry]

My friend is on MJ and so is her SIL. Currently they're both on the low dose. They're talking about staying on 2.5 but splitting the 5mg pen (with fresh needles) so they effectively pay half price. Is there a risk of infection etc even with new needles? Something about it makes me wonder if it could be a bad idea.
I also think that people are more tempted to tweak these things like the bonus dose or buying it on Facebook etc because of the sheer expense. It would be great to see it become more affordable for people.

By the way I do not think they're using the medicine from the pen directly. I think she said they use insulin needles to draw the correct dose. So they're never cross contaminating the medicine.

Do you how they know how much to withdraw from the pen?
I can't see any issue other than I'd be worried it was the correct dose!
If if was this easy, for people started on 2.5, would it not be cheaper to buy a 10mg pen and just take what they need, so effectively lasts 4x longer.

@beachgirl7 i think they must know the mls to withdraw. It's freely out there how much a dose is. You'd need 4 people on 2.5 for a 10mg pen as you still need to use the pen in the 30 days. When they go up to 5 then yes they could share the 10mg pen

Interesting and I see why they would be tempted given the price.
Someone with medical knowledge might be able to see a downside but, assuming they used a new insulin pen each time and drew out 3ml (half the regular dose), to my mind I'm not sure of the downside other than they wanted be providing a true picture to their provider for monitoring purposes and, I assume, one wouldn't be registered at all.

@beachgirl7 it wouldn't work for a single user as the pen shoukd only be used for 30 days once started.

Ah I see, I didn't realise it had to be used in 30 days!

@Fromthesidelines They both registered initially so were both approved and Dr notified. So it's really just a case of one now won't be ordering or they'll take in turns perhaps. Maybe switching providers as we all seem to do for a better deal.

When or if they both get to higher dose they'd have to get their own I suppose. Perhaps there is a flaw in their plan there because they might both want to go up a dose and they'd need to make sure they still could

They would have to start on 2.5mg of Mounjaro so splitting the pens and getting their own when they get to a higher dose would mean one of them would have to start again with the 2.5mg. It's a good idea to save money but only if the lower dose works for both of them, 2.5mg did absolutely nothing for me so I wouldn't have been able to do it.

It's a bad idea as the red seal the needle has to perforate to get the drug out has only been tested being punctured 4 or 5 times so may not remain intact enough to prevent leakage or maintain sterility if it is punctured 8 or more times.
Also the pens are not designed to be used with insulin syringes (I think the needles may be slightly thicker than the pen needles which could further compromise the seal).

When manufacturers test medications the government grants a licence which allows the medication to be prescribed for use AS IT WAS TESTED. If a patient has a terrible problem the manufacturer is then liable but, if it used in a different way, the use is called "off license" and the manufacturer does have any liability if that variation in use could have cause the issue.

Your friend and her SIL are putting themselves at risk of infection and sepsis so I think this really is a bad idea