Another calm and supportive thread to discuss the Price Increases: Mounjaro THREAD TWO

[TryingAgainAgainAgain]

Keep calm and carry on discussing The Pendemic…

(sorry)

Grrr my supplier has no stock, I didn’t buy extra and thought I would wait till my normal ordering time, but nothing. Fingers crossed they have some stock next week. I am just in maintenance and was decreasing my doses, I was enjoying the reducing costs after a year on monujaro. I was willing to take a lower dose for as long as needed/ ever, might need to rethink that.

It’s purely speculation on my behalf, but I’m guessing the supply issues are now flowing from the wholesaler.

The CEO of Pharmadoctor, who supply the pharmacies with Mounjaro, came out and said that they were against the prescription of multiple pens etc.

So if they’re now imposing quotas, the pharmacies are bang out of luck.

So is it becoming clear now that no one is getting further stock in August? I have been with The Family Chemist for a year and it was time to order but they sold all their stock last Thursday/ Friday and have had none in since then. There was no limiting of orders to existing customers.

No comms from them so I wrote to them on Monday and they said they expected more stock at the end of the week. But still out of stock today. To me it sounds like they are caught by Eli Lily saying providers could not order more than usual. Am not very happy at their actions. Unless they are offering a very good price in September I won’t order from them again. Fortunately I did manage to get a pen for this month from another provider but at about £40 more than I was paying.

Oushk are saying they expect a delivery of 12.5 and 15 today, but it does seem as though there isn’t as much stock as expected

It's annoying to still be waiting for approval after a week. Most have said a delay of 7-10 days so hopefully hear by Monday. I'm not sure they can delay much more than that. Also hopefully we should know some prices by then too. So I know what to do with my current pen. Taper off or carry on and decide in September. Still kicking myself that I didn't reorder every 4 weeks

Am in exactly the same boat. Am now on 10mg after being on 15mg for a while. Am now thinking of staying on 10 pens but trying to use only 7.5mg doses from it so you can get 7 doses from it. Although I am sure Eli Lilly is spending money on getting the pen redesigned so it doesn’t have 1-1.2 extra doses in it!!! The US medication is 4 single injection pens for up to $1k a month although I think you can get discount codes of up to 50% off.

I am annoyed with myself. I totally panicked and ordered 4 pens & have been approved and received them all. I tried to cancel 2 and they refused. Now I’m embarrassed and also worried when I run out I won’t get approved as it will have been too long!

I saw a post on Reddit in which some guy rang several pharmacies to ask this very question. Most pharmacies he spoke to said they understood the circumstances and to take a photo of all four pen boxes together, with the dates on them, as proof that there was enough to cover the gap in ordering.

I'm going to keep ordering and use my extras for maintenance. But you could take a photo of all of your boxes, showing labels together. Then write on each box the date you started using it, take a pic and use the pics as proof that you bought and have used multiple pens due to this situation. There will be many, many people in the same position.

Re: psyllium husk, I take the capsules already, but painkillers and iron tablets do not help. I have ibs so it’s a different kind of life.

I wish they would all now just release what their new pricing structure is going to be so that everyone can make decisions as to who they are using or what they are doing going forward.

This whole fiasco doesn't seem the most appropriate way to behave over what is essentially a drug.

Also Lotus -- I had an email yesterday to say " Unfortunately, due to an unprecedented surge in demand following the recent Eli Lilly manufacturer price announcement, our website experienced very high traffic which caused some temporary technical issues. Because of this, just a small part of your consultation details and/or photos didn’t come through to us. " So I had to resubmit all the information.

I'm not impressed. I'm away over next weekend so now I'm slightly panicking about when the order will arrive.

@Kipperandarthur I bet the pharmacies are all nervous about releasing their prices.Customers will be really shopping around now the price has gone up. If you haven’t negotiated a good enough discount and are charging more than competitors you won’t sell any pens. They have recruited staff possibly including additional pharmacists, invested in their websites and fridges, possibly signed storage and courier delivery contracts and now their sales might disappear to a competitor.

They must have had a taste of reduced output this week as many pharmacies don’t have stock. In two weeks they will have the stock but will they have customers? I expect most people tried to buy a pen in the past week so not many people will need a pen in the first half of September. I think people will wait till they really need their next pen and keep checking the prices and any offers. i think they will also change their habits a bit eg stay on a cheaper lower dose, buy a bigger pen but take smaller doses from it etc. Some would be new customers might start on Wegovy instead so they need to get that pricing structure reviewed as well. In short they have no clue how much demand they will have going forwards and are likely already paying staff to not do very much as they have no stock to prescribe,pack and send out.

Apparently due to the surge in demand, they had to change servers. There’s a post about it on Reddit, and if it’s been more than 7 days you can re-order

Another pharmacy to name and shame : Cloud. They approved my pen on the 15th, but no shipping updates. As seems to be the new normal, emails are ignored and the phone isn't answered. I am surprised and not a little disappointed, as I chose Cloud specifically because they are a very established pharmacist, that I have used before to fulfill prescriptions. However, I have just discovered that they are also the fulfilment source for two other pharmacies - Lotus and Signature, so God knows how many plates they are juggling.
As an aside - has anyone noticed how many of these pharmacies are based in Scotland? I wonder what it is that makes this particular location so attractive 🤔

Morning all, can I join the thread?
I've had my last dose of my current pen and ASDA (the stockist I use as it seems to be the only one who does collection) is out. I also don't think I'll be able to afford the prices whenever it does come back in stock.
My starting weight was 25 stone (January) and I'm now approaching 18 stone, so I've lost quite a bit and do feel great.
My plan was always to use MJ for a year, build good habits and then wean off, but I'm starting to think now might be the time to try this.
I've been using MFP to track calories and it's really clocked for me... I'm just worried about the return of constant hunger and food noise. So upset this situation has happened to us all.
Anyone else in a similar position? I cannot put this weight back on, and really want to make it to my goal of 14 stone.

@Sogfree @TryingAgainAgainAgain
I'm annoyed with Farmeci too. Had my usual follow up a few weeks ago and arranged for the 24th August like I do every month. Got that same email so asked for two more pens to be added to that order. Got an email back a few days ago saying couldn't have more and they wouldn't price match my order . I asked for the order to be sent now rather than 24th as I'm not convinced I will get it and heard nothing back. Yet I've heard of new customers that ordered Friday recieving bundles of 3 pens this week. I won't be staying with them for much longer. I ended up trying superdrug and IQ doctor incase I don't get this one from Farmeci and they are messing around too. Both been approved but not sent out.

Excellent points there. Hadn’t thought of it that way.

Re. Lotus, I was approved on Monday, got an email asking for a couple of photos last night. No posting day given yet. I am not at home every day so I need to know really.

Very good point, hardly anyone will need to order in September and new people may be put off by the price of the higher doses.
Many will price shop and change suppliers.
But people adapt quickly and will accept that 15mg costs £350 and will just stay lower longer.
Its going to be a funny time for the pharmacies but they will have already made £££ with all the extra orders, so maybe they will let staff take holiday, they will be exhausted after all this extra work.
In a few months it will probably all be back to normal.

Re how much the pharmacies make this info on the Bolt website is insightful. The price they charge covers the cost of the drug, their operations, packing and shipping it plus £29 profit per pen for the pharmacy.

That doesn’t sound like much but if you sell 100 pens every weekday for a whole year that’s £725k profit in a year. Some of these pharmacies seem like quite small businesses so that’s fortune in new profit for them.

I wonder if there is a bit of a standoff going on with pricing. Are they all waiting for each other to release so that they can compare prices and figure out who is cheapest etc.

I think we’ll see quite a bit of movement with pricing in the coming weeks as some will have put a bigger mark up on than others and may need to reduce to be competitive with the market.

Its Interesting to watch because we’ve never really seen this here in the UK for medicine.

Nobody wants to be the first to release and see they’ve completely undercut everyone else (and therefore lost out on pure profit), or to be the highest and lose all their customers. But they only really have a week to release now.

My order was also confirmed with Lotus on Monday but still no shipping details. Frustrating when others have had emails even overnight! I just want it confirmed so I can stop toying with the idea of ordering elsewhere “just in case”

I’m guessing most people on 15 will drop to 12.5 or even 10 to even out the price and try and limit the amount of mj in their body - or micro dose and whispers - go over the 30 day limit

a bit like food. It doesn’t go poof the second it reaches midnight.

they havent done trials on using for longer so they won’t recommend this or agree with it - but sure many customers esp those who have been on mj for a year or so are more flexible with protocol