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...

Possibly - but since all the business with the groups getting banned over and over, the mods have been extremely hot on blocking anything that isn't just health talk and cheering people on, so it also might be that.

Anything to do with the pharmacy themselves is meant to go on their private message boards.

(Personally I think the mods are overkeen now, but what do I know).

Please don’t. Just please don’t assume that you know anything about why I’m paying 340 pounds per month for Mounjaro and that I need people to jump into the thread and tell me I’ve been doing it all wrong for a year and they in fact know better than me about what I pay, or should pay.

Maybe you could read my post again?

The mods are awful.

I’m not sure I understand. Wegovy prices are potentially reducing whilst we are worrying that MJ prices are going to be hiked up considerably?

This would seem like very bad business for MJ who have a lot of UK patients who would surely try the competition instead?

I understand there would be some collateral damage. People on maintenance for example, but it seems a bit bizarre.

Incidentally I just purchased my latest 5mg pen, although I am now on maintenance having reached a happy size 10. Feeling fabulous. That 5mg pen had gone up by £10 and I was not best pleased with that!

Will wegovy be increasing in price too? I wonder if pharmacies will support switching to wegovy as maintenance. It may not be as effective but might be enough to maintain on.

Yes you order from multiple pharmacies. I’ve just ordered my first 15mg from Oushk. Done some maths and as long as I am strict with all other spending (which will be easy as I’m actually changing job next month and won’t be able to go out shopping during the day), I should be okay as long as it doesn’t go above £400. I’m going to sleep on it and then potentially order a 15mg pen from another supplier if I still feel worried about it after a good nights sleep

This is terrible news.

One thing I do think offers some hope for the future is that the cat is out of the bag now on these drugs and all kinds of things that will be cheaper are being developed, tablets etc.

If you order from multiple pharmacies and they all notify your GP, isn't that going to be problematic at some point?

@LifeOfAShowGirl I’m glad you’re being proactive and putting things in place for a worst case scenario. You were the first person I thought of when I read the first few posts from the Op.

Oh believe me I had a cry. I actually felt my heart drop into my bloody (non existent) arse 🤣

worst comes to the worst my parents have said I can stop paying rent to them to afford it. So that’s nice!

Let’s hope it doesn’t go up too high.

I guess we won’t really know until later .

I honestly don’t know what I’ll do.

I don’t think I can afford up to £300 . Might be able to do it for a month

started at Christmas time weighing 315lb now I’m 249lb and dropped 10 bmi points

I do have a full pen in the fridge.

Yes
I came on here specifically looking for a thread on this
I saw on social media,it is going up by £100 at least per pen ,if not £150 .
I'm already paying £280 for a pen ,I definitely can't afford any more

I'll probably have to come off it if the increases are at the level being reported - I'm hoping that it's a combination of a bit of willy waving and negotiation behind closed doors will mitigate it down somewhat to a level I can afford.

I've lost 5 1/2 stone - had another same amount to lose, but I've just had to go up to 10mg and financially I can't afford what the reports currently have that at - I have some wiggle room but not that much!

Ozempic still works, not as dramatically but still.... and there are a few more treatments in the pipeline which will be available in the next year or so. There's a good article about them here: https://www.oxfordonlinepharmacy.co.uk/blog/the-future-of-weight-loss-drugs-what-s-coming-in-2025

I've gone overdrawn to get school uniform this month. I cannot think where we could cut back that much.

I received this email from Asda pharmacy a few days ago - would they have sent this if prices were about to rocket? I doubt it.
I am working on reducing my dose. If I do this successfully I will continue to buy 15mg pens and stretch them to cover 6 weeks or even longer. I'm happy to take the risk of having a pen open longer than 30 days. I'm sure there will be ways around price increases, and GLP1s are being developed by existing and new companies as we speak which will make the market more competitive and therefore prices lower.

It’s the two competing messages isn’t it. But these price increases have come from the manufacturer and seemingly blindsided the pharmacies

I actually don't think UK pharmacy knew before today? We get news so quickly now.

I normally re-order the week before I need a new pen, and have never stockpiled (couldn't see the point).
Had a re-order now email the other day from MedExpress and have just reordered, even though I still have 3 more doses in my current pen.
If they send me another email in 2 weeks (it's usually 2 weeks after the previous order) I might be able to get another one in before the price rises.
If the price bounces up (or goes up at all) I'll have saved myself some money. If it doesn't, the pens will get used anyway, so no loss.
I don't think this is panic buying, although I admit I panicked a bit when I opened the thread. The only issue I can foresee is if I get ahead of myself with ordering and then leave a bit of a gap, I might struggle to get a subsequent prescription.
I bet I'm not the only person banging in an early order today.
Thanks for the patient explanations @TheRealGoose , you've calmed me down somewhat 😁

I agree, I used to work in high turnover, high end alcohol sales, no one ever paid list price, it was just the starting point for me to be able to go in and negotiate contracts/deals/'discounts' etc

My gut reaction (not based on anything - I have no inside knowledge nor experience on how this works) is that I doubt prices will increase to £300+. There will be too much uproar and loss of profit. I’m confident they will come to an agreement. It’s too lucrative for them not to find a way to mitigate it.

Remember a couple of months ago when Oushk set off a panic when they had their inspection? I can’t even remember what it is what about, maintenance or something?! Nothing really happened in the end, apart from a few tweaks.

On a side note, I hope that pharmacies don’t allow sudden stockpiling. That will create issues in a month’s time - not to mention unfair on those that can’t afford to stockpile.

I am not one to panic. Let’s not get too in our heads about it until we know more. Trawling Reddit/Daily Mail will only make the panic worse. I know that’s hard but let’s wait and see.

I’m going to order (up to) 3 more on top of my usual from Oushk - I’m a good three weeks ahead with them anyway which they understand

Yes they knew el Lilly said commercial terms are being agreed, so they all knew and are in discussions, well the big ones anyway. Zava, asda, cloud, MedExpress etc, even the scaremongering so called news articles are putting small statements in about commercial terms being negotiated and can be passed on. All that’d happened is someone got hold of this and sent it viral without context.

im not saying prices won’t increase, I am saying aligning list price with Europe is not the headline people think it is, the commercial terms el Lilly agrees with the wholesalers and major pharmacies is. As is the margins those wholesalers and pharmacies decide to put on top. They all have room to move here, to command volume.

so genuinely until we see the big boys issue price changes, then this is meaningless. And that news isn’t out yet, all we have is a price list movement and a few small insignificant pharmacies who don’t buy ag scale so won’t have the terms panicking.’

Obviously this is concerning but I'm trying not to panic until it's been confirmed from the pharmacies what the new prices will be.

I currently pay around £130 I'm on 7.5 but budgeted up to £200 for the higher doses if I needed them but above £200 would be hard to justify.

I can't imagine going back to how I was before MJ it's been life changing I've never had this success on previous diets so clearly there's something in me that MJ is changing. I've gone from a BMI of 40 to 34 and 32 pound lost in 21 weeks

Agreed. And remember back in Jan (I think?) when the new pharmacy regulations came out and set off a huge panic with everyone thinking they'd be cut off? And it turned out we'd just have to send in more photos etc.

I do think prices will go up a bit, for sure. But I don't think we are looking at up to £400 per pen.

I am cross with Oushk though. The Facebook group is going mad with constant posts being deleted by the trigger happy mods - I think Hira needs to comment publicly to calm everyone down.