Article in The Guardian moaning about boxing day sale prices on jabs

[Mittens67]

Having just read this frankly annoying piece in the guardian, has anyone actually received offers in a boxing day sale of mounjaro?

@Mittens67 definitely not me I'd love one I was just on my website checking and it's still the same price which is the highest anywhere I'm with Asda

What annoying piece? Do you mean this article about illegal methods used online to promote sales of weight loss jabs, which seemed very concerning. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/dec/26/experts-concern-promotions-weight-loss-jabs-uk

There is not just one but two articles on them today in the Guardian? Why nothing balanced about the health benefits? I found it annoying too. It makes me worry they might take them away or something.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/dec/26/experts-concern-promotions-weight-loss-jabs-uk

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/dec/26/shrinking-waistlines-and-growing-profits-the-weight-loss-drug-boom

Bit of hyperbole there from the guardian, most of these “aggresssive marketers” the average person on the street wouldn’t even know exists , in fact many of them don’t even know where to buy it.
and price competition is healthy, it’s what stops us being ripped off. You still need to pass the consultation , it’s not like you can just shove it in your basket and check out.

idotic, unbalanced article.

What about bringing the cost down for those who are not eligible on the NHS, might be something different to moan about?

I think it's mainly that the jabs are very much a hot topic and so any articles about them will generate clicks etc 🤷🏻‍♀️

It's going to be interesting and high profile, because these jabs are making some people a lot of money, but are going to cost other producers of consumer goods and pharmaceuticals hugely. Lobbying and disinformation is going to be rife.

Obviously you weren't here when all the weight loss boards were spammed constantly by dickheads with their discount codes for a tiresome little group of pharmacies. MNHQ thank god, have banned it except in one dedicated code thread.

And you clearly do not use Facebook, Insta or Tiktok which is like the Wild West with people out and out lying about their weight loss 'journeys' in order to recruit people to use their referral and discount codes. For those same few pharmacies. They even have sobbing fanboi spats about rival influencers betraying them by using different pharmacies ffs. Given that the average ill-educated person gets 99% of their information from social media then yes,that includes a very sizable proportion of the average people ' on the street'.

I am not saying that any pharmacy is actually doing any of this themselves personally, but any pharmacy that has a discount referral scheme is powering this. As those articles make crystal clear, this is illegal marketing of a prescription drug, and the pharmacies in question should be reported and fined. Particularly when you see some of the dangerous, idiotic rubbish peddled by people who are desperate for their referral discounts. They are dragging named pharmacies and the whole WLI system into the shit.

No referral scheme is remotely necessary for a healthy competitive market.

Oh great - @Surreyyy is giving us an example of annoying spam

Looking at all the posts on MN about discounts you would certainly get zero sense that the discount is on the "services" provided by the pharmacy, rather than on the medication itself.

That demonstrates how far the main illegality pinpointed in the article has gone - - i.e. promoting sales of prescription-only medication by offering discounts. Poor old MN has accidentally become a massive noticeboard for these illegal discounts. Even on the pharmacies's websites, the promotions fail to meet the presentational guidelines that are intended to distance the medication from the promotional pricing, according to the article. And once the discounts are out in the wild (eg when spoken about on MN) even the most nominal distancing breaks down.
It really is the wild west. No matter how potentially useful these medications are, they are still prescription drugs and need to be distributed in accordance with the same protocols as other prescription drugs.

The World Health Organisation issued a safety warning about potentially “life-threatening” counterfeit batches of the drugs this week, which is why it is advisable to always get them from a registered and regulated clinic. Even then, consumers are encouraged to always check boxes to assess the label quality too, with fake batches often “having spelling mistakes on the box”.

I have asked MNHQ to ban the promotion of WLI discount codes - even pharmacies like MedExpress claim that their codes are not allowed to be shared on social media so I have no idea why MN allows it - it's really unsavoury to be using MN to hustle for discounts on prescription medication.

Unfortunately - and I have no idea why - they've said they don't plan to change their policy on it. I suggest anyone who feels similarly should suggest the same to them as they don't seem to care that allowing this practice gives WLI in general a really bad name.

I think it’s fine if on one thread, no one has to use them. And I don’t see how it gives the drug a bad name.

Because they don't just stay on one thread. Because it turns the purchase and use of a prescribed medication into a grubby, cringeworthy sales pitch with strangers desperately trying to convince other strangers to use their code. Because the pharmacies themselves stipulate the codes shouldn't be shared on social media. And because, it's just naff?

There are plenty of discount codes available that don't benefit any individual. The cheapest current price for the 10mg pen is with IQ Doctor, with their set discount available to everyone, so this isn't about wanting people to pay more.

It just brings the whole subject of weight loss medication down to a bargain basement level that is totally unnecessary.

A healthy competitive market is a good thing, but I worry about unscrupulous companies who put profit before people and safety, and who don't adequately check people's true weight. I think that the supermarkets entering the market on a larger scale in 2025, might at least put pressure on some of the dodgier providers.

The trouble with articles that appear to criticise unscrupulous pharmacies is that net effect will be to drive more people to their sites. Just as was probably intended. (And possibly paid for, if that isn't too cynical a view).

It's not as bad as a recent Times article about microdosing to lose half a stone though. Apparently "everyone" is doing it.

Lots of journalists writing about it as WLI is a ‘hot’ topic. There will be loads more over Jan /Feb about ‘My month on WLI (finally getting into my size 10 or size 8 LBD)’ or ‘My WLI WhatsApp group adventures’ or ‘WLI parties abound’. I can write those articles now based on the past couple of months 😂

I agree with you entirely. I find it really distasteful. All the disingenuous posts with how wonderful it is with a link stuck on end so the poster can benefit for themselves. It's grubby.

Asda here as well, so I don't need to wait in for deliveries. Do you sometimes get a 'here's 10% off' email, that's only valid for 7 days? I really want them to send me one now as I need to reorder. It's so annoying that they expire so fast. Sorry for the thread derail.

I think it is appalling that these pharmacies have got away with flouting the rules for this long.

Apparently MedExpress were crediting accounts of social media "influencers" with cash amounts that could be used on purchases on the site. One stated last month that she had £19,000 in credit at one point (I would stress this is the pharmacy's fault, not the influencer's). How is that ethical on supplies of prescription only medicines?

Why? People won't be prescribed if it's not suitable for them. The codes just help save money. I switched providers twice to get the most competitive price. There's nothing wrong with that

@user243245346 five already posted listing the reasons why, as have other people on this thread. Referral codes are not necessary to get the best price.

Because it is illegal for any retailer, including pharmacies, to promote the sales of prescription-only medication, by discounts, codes or any other promotional technique.
That is part of a network of rules intended to ensure that we are not simply consumers when we buy prescription medicines, that we can buy them only as part of an authentic (rather than nominal) consultation with a medical professional.
Those rules are breaking down for WLI. There are clearly many providers who are simply going through minimal box-ticking gestures in order to exploit loopholes in the law. The small-print associated with discounts is all part of this loophole seeking. It is unfair on MNHQ to make them the hosts of illegal sales techniques.

There are a couple of article on the Times today which are similar. I think these can be read with a share token, but not sure.

https://www.thetimes.com/article/d1364c90-2fc4-49c0-9223-443c0f55ac3d?shareToken=906ef25141e9fbb0dcd2495a6b26d7c2

https://www.thetimes.com/article/5d20479e-8d4f-4ff3-a1d8-5ce9df28c0ce?shareToken=2fb6d5395d41afabb4cb4b946364f3bb