Just for information and largely unsubstantiated, but I have heard rumours from friends who work in pharmacy/pharmaceuticals that there was more to this debacle than just Trump and there have been rumblings about unprofessional behaviour, profiteering and rule-bending in the wild west that is the WLI market.
Their suggestion was this may be part of the reason Lilly hit the UK with price controls and enforced quotas on pharmacy ordering rather than reducing costs in the US as NovoNordisk have done.
May be a coincidence but the pharmacy regulators sent information to pharmacists this week containing the following:
"We have recently had concerns raised with us by the public, medicines manufacturers, and other regulators regarding medicines supplied on private prescriptions overseas by UK pharmacies. Concerns have included medicines being supplied to countries in which they are not legally allowed, and medicines arriving in a condition which means they are not safe to use.
Pharmacies and their teams need to undertake the relevant checks concerning the applicable laws of the country they are sending medicines to.
The packaging, transport method and in-transit timeliness and delivery provider also need to be suitable (in line with the manufacturer’s storage instructions) to ensure that the medicine arrives in good condition and is still safe and fit for purpose.
The DHSC list of medicines that you cannot export from the UK or hoard should also be checked and the potential impact on medicines availability carefully considered before sending medicines outside the UK."
I particularly noted the points about sending medication overseas which we have all seen (even some posters on here have admitted they are not in the UK but a provider ships to them or allows bulk buying when visiting with the knowledge the patient is from overseas - no shade to them it is the prescriber at fault) and the point about hoarding which some pharmacies seem to have encouraged. I checked that list, just out of interest and both semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro) are on it.
It then goes on to say:
"We recently issued a joint enforcement notice with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to tackle adverts for prescription-only medicines by pharmacies that don’t comply with legislation and standards.
The ASA recently issued rulings against pharmacies, who promoted prescription-only medicines (POMs) for weight management.
These rulings make clear that all injectable forms of weight-management medication are POMs and can’t be advertised, even where ads don’t explicitly name a medicine. The rulings clarify that claims including “Weight Loss Injections” and “GLP-1”, and images including unbranded medical injection pens or vials of liquid, aren’t allowed.
We expect all pharmacies to make sure any adverts or promotion comply. "
May be a total coincidence but who knows?