Big price increases?

[CoverMeInMarmalade]

Anyone else seen this chatter about massive price increases announced for MJ (to pharmacies) in the last hour or so?

Very concerning as it looks like it could double the cost of some of the doses. I'll try to find the copy of the letter sent out...

By the point anyone picked up on it (could only be when your GP gets all the separate notifications) you would have all the pens and they can’t take them back - they will understand why you did it and that you aren’t selling it on or taking 3 pens at once. It’s a strategy for any of us who are well into the journey and can fairly well predict how many more pens we plan to use to taper down/stop.

the issue from user point of view is you would then have a long gap in order history should you need to restart.

Yes, normally when you order the GP is simply notified and the information goes on my prescription medication list and nothing more. My question was would my GP surgery have an issue if more than one notification came through for the same medication and dosage on similar dates. Surely that would flag something, somewhere?

Not sure about anyone else but the NHS barely contacts me with test results or when it's something I actually need to know because they're so busy and under resourced, I can't imagine this would flag anything.

@LifeOfAShowGirl Thank you, that’s good to know. I’ve only been on it a short while so this is a bluddy nuisance! I have a 5mg pen in the fridge and have just ordered a new one so I’m good for a couple of months, but still.

(On an unrelated matter, I like your username. Fellow Swiftie here!)

Thanks!

I’m gutted. I’m seven stone down and realistically to be in the middle of a healthy weight I’d need to lose 5-6 stone more. I posted literally a day ago that I would be happy to be on Mounjaro for life.

There were some pharmacies that were UK based and selling to people with non-UK addresses. Not legit and not legal, but they were doing it. There was a whole reddit board dedicated to people gloating at the UK possibly being hit with new guidelines because of it, some time back

Can you expand on this pls as I’m one of those customers and don’t understand how they could do it if it’s illegal. In fact when I visited the pharmacy a few months ago when I was in London a routine inspection was taking place that they passed with flying colours. And I’m not sure how big a dent customers like myself make in uk supplies - I’m one of 2 people in the entire country who use this pharmacy to source my mounjaro. Can I cover the increase in cost? Yes. Do I want to? Of course not. I’m just going to wait and see what any increase will amount to and then decide whether to stay with my supplier or swap to one herd at home where I’ll pay about 450 a pen. It probably won’t be much more than the increase with my uk supplier.

There’s a few communities online with people overseas posting about how they save a lot of money ordering from the UK so I don’t think it’s quite as niche as it might seem unfortunately.

Oh no, honestly I have made huge cut backs on my spending to afford it monthly as it is, I’ll be really sad if it goes up, I wont be able to afford an increase.

I had a phonecall from my GP surgery the other day actually about a prescription - pharmacist had spotted I'd been over-issued something (an extra zero on the quantity which had then been filled without an argument at the chemist) but they had to ring me up to check I wasn't going to do anything stupid with 10 months of SSRIs in one go. My comment about no, I wasn't stupid but could I consider it prescription charges saved jackpot got a laugh and no they couldn't take them back off me so yes, you saved about £60 there mate.

I’m feeling very fortunate that I’m at GW but this is the kick I needed to come off it (was planning on being on a low dose for as long as needed)

I’ll be at goal tomorrow and had planned to start trusting down from my 10 pen next week and to be off Mounjaro completely by the 15th of December. I can cover the cost of any increase but I’m very angry this is happening and I’m heart sore for people who’ll feel absolutely broken because of this. I could cry. I really could.

May I ask, are there any suppliers on the Monjo.co.uk site to be avoided? I’m currently with Zava.

Are you prescribed it in your own country and the UK pharmacy just supplies it? If so that’s not illegal, depending on the country.

But afaik UK pharmacies cannot (should not!) prescribe to those living overseas, so if they are both prescribing and supplying to you outside of the UK, they are breaking legislation, from what I understand.

I’m gutted. And I’ve cried. The thing is if it stays as it is, it’ll be tight but workable. But I fear that this immediate change from Lilly means that Trump will put more and more pressure on them until it’s well over £1k a month

Chill out. Find your own source if you're that bothered.

I've seen posters on Reddit Mounjaro Spain sub-board talking about flying to the UK to stock up (cheap Easyjet fare and being able to pick up a few pens meant big savings). Apparently you couldn't use a Spanish prescription with a few pharmacies so I think people were using UK addresses... not sure. The difference in price made it worth doing (I am on 10mg and paying about 350 euros for one pen, it goes up to 440 for 12.5 and 15 - the cost is set country wide by the Department of Health and it's not available on public healthcare).

Am I right in thinking this wouldn't affect Wegovy?

Not this one. But Trump is targeting all drugs. This is going to become a huge issue.

Just relistening to the Oushk live from the beginning. Their estimate is that the new costs will be £150 for 2.5mg to £300 for the 15mg. But they are clear this is an estimate based on the info they have but have yet to sit down and really work out the new prices.

They are saying peopke can order 3 pens now for delivery before 29th Aug but ask that you do it all as one single order to save workloads.

For a long time this medication was not available to Type2 diabetics on the NHS because too many people were buying it privately. If you’re obese & you qualify you will be able to be prescribed this by your Doctor in many cases now. Why not spare a thought for the people with serious health conditions for which the medication was originally intended for ie Diabetics.

No, Wegovy won't be affected, so good news for anyone on that. Sadly, I know a few people for whom Wegovy just wasn't very effective and Mounjaro was the only thing that helped.

That's not true.

Most people will not be able to get it, even if they are severely obese. You need to have a very high BMI and about 4-5 co-morbidities to get it on the NHS. So, basically, people are going to get fatter and sicker, and it's going to cost the NHS way more in the long-term, if people cannot access private prescriptions any longer.

You have absolutely no idea what your are talking about. Walk away from the thread and go and educate yourself on the facts.

Yes, it wasn't Mounjaro that diabetics couldn't get hold of, was it?