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

[TryingAgainAgainAgain]

Keep calm and carry on discussing The Pendemic…

(sorry)

I’m currently on 10mg and there’s no way I can pay these new prices. This dose is more or less doubled in cost. Whether it’s as effective or not, I’ll have no choice but to switch to Wegovy - which to be fair, until Mounjaro came along was the “miracle weight loss drug”.
I don’t believe the current situation shows any need to tighten up on online pharmacies. Until EL announced these huge price increases, things were ticking along nicely. Hundreds of thousands of people in this country have turned their lives around or were well on the way to doing so, and are, or would have been, no longer at risk of many horrendous long term chronic diseases.
I really don’t get these calls for tighter regulations when the benefits are so huge and obvious. There will always be people who try to game the system but don’t penalise the majority. The real sad thing is that many people will no longer be able to afford to get their lives back on track.

Wegovy simply won't work for many of us who have insulin resistance.

What would be a good compromise is that people can get prescribed and supplied via the NHS but pay "cost" price for it (assuming the NHS can negotiate a price for bulk orders that would be far below independent suppliers). But I don't know if the NHS model would allow this?

Pharmacies are already regulated and why shouldn't you be able to order drugs to cover a period longer than a month?

I can get a supply of the contraceptive pill to last six months, I don't need a review every month. Same with pain meds, blood pressure meds, asthma treatment, antidepressants etc.

I can also buy private veterinary drugs for a pet to last multiple months.

Why should MJ be more heavily restricted?

Exactly. My dad has months and months worth of his meds. He gets given two inhalers at a time (every month!) so he can build a stock because it would be awful if he ran out. You can ask your doctor for more than one months worth of your meds if you’re going on holiday etc., I don’t know why people get so precious when it comes to Mounjaro

I don’t disagree with this. However most drugs are prescribed by one doctor/practice who knows what has been prescribed and medical history. Here we have people going to multiple suppliers at the same time for the same drug with very few detailed checks. I think ultimately there should be a better way, although I don’t know what that looks like.

That’s not comparable to ordering six pens from six different suppliers, as multiple posters claim to have done on 14 August.

I think in 'normal' times, the scrutiny we're subjected to by most on-line pharmacies is tougher than we often experience in face to face consults with GPs. My GP couldn't even record my height accurately, told me I'd have to wait 5 years to have my borderline high cholesterol checked again (I went for private blood tests), don't read their notes prior to seeing you, etc, etc. I'm sure we've all got our own stories.

What we've seen in the last couple of weeks is unprecedented and will settle down. Knee jerk regulatory responses will only lead to higher costs, more inconvenience and barriers for us, the patients. And those who want to get their hands on these meds when they're not eligible or to misuse them will still find a way. The powers haven't found a way to do this effectively to control the private prescribing of much more dangerous, addictive medications- please don't ask them to mess up the supply of WLIs, just because you're a bit shocked or put out or whatever.

Not directly but it can improve insulin sensitivity by helping to lose weight and helping dietary changes by reducing cravings for sugar and refined carbs.
So in that respect it can indeed help people with insulin resistance.

Does insulin resistance reverse if weight is lost and diet is modified to remove insulin spiking carbohydrates? The Michael Mosely blood sugar diet was iirc all tailored to reverse insulin resistance.

I don’t know enough about whether it is considered an irreversible life long health condition or a reversible side effect of poor diet (for the individual- not everyone is sensitive to the same foods) and subsequent weight gain,

This situation was definitely brought about directly by Eli Lilly. They did not have to respond to Trump’s demands in this way- he has been made the scape goat for this debacle. Without the announced price hikes, there would have been no benefit to people stock piling. In fact, the stock piling is a disadvantage long term, as people will find it harder to get taken on for maintenance where it would have been a smooth journey otherwise. Prices could have been increased incrementally over a couple of years in the uk and decreased incrementally elsewhere and nobody would have reacted in this way. They have also allowed Russia to produce it off patent (I think?)- why sanction this for one region and not others. The drug company had lots of ways forward without causing this drama.

I absolutely do not blame people for trying to ensure their part-finished journey on this drug can be completed as cheaply as possible.

In my case it is irreversible. I have been following a low carb diet for years, have also done intermittent fasting. Both of which completely stopped working and the weight piled on. Mounjaro has been the only thing to work and even that's been quite slow. I've gone from 68.2kg to 58.5kg in 5 months.

Just to add, I eat carbs now and still lose weight. I was on 20mg of carbs daily and didn't lose weight. This medication is amazing stuff.

Are you diagnosed Type 2 diabetes, @Ihavesomeballs? I have a close family member who does and will also be monitoring her diet and blood sugar for the rest of her life, no matter how much weight she loses.

No, not type 2 diabetic. Just menopause doing it's thing I suspect.

It’s theoretically possible for one person who qualifies for Mounjaro to register with multiple pharmacies and then supply their thin friends with the drug from all but one of the pharmacies. They take the Mounjaro from one of the pharmacies themselves so are a genuine customer in that sense. Every month they give their weight loss stats to all the pharmacies and then buy multiple pens. Am not sure how many people would do this though.

When you first sign on with each supplier you have to provide photo ID. It would be relatively simple for suppliers to be required to submit customer order details to a central database which checks for people ordering from multiple pharmacies and puts them on a banned customer list that pharmacies get in trouble for selling to. The pharmacy council would have to think the problem was quite widespread to bother setting this up though.

This is also my experience. Nothing else has worked. People on here talking about how it’s revolutionised their diet, how they enjoy salads and protein etc etc and all I think is this is what I’ve eaten for years but now MJ actually helps.

I think a lot of people may have done similar to me and ordered from 2 different places because the communication from some suppliers has been pretty bad. I didn't want to risk my usual supplier finally getting back to me to say they were OOS when (at the time) there were other places that did have it.

The situation with Russia is unique, due to the war in Ukraine Eli Lilly pulled out of selling to the Russian market completely. They voluntarily did not renew their patent (because they were no longer conducting any business in Russia), this allows pharmaceutical companies in Russia to produce generic drugs. Eli Lilly won' t let their patent lapse anywhere else.

Ha ha I know right....😂 TBF I just don't really enjoy any food on Mounjaro, but it's a lot easier that I can eat what I want rather than just salads and meat.

Supplying a POM like that is a crime.

It would be possible, easier in fact, with many other drugs. The morning after pill can be bought from a pharmacist, and could just as easily be sold on.

I hope they don’t make it harder to get hold of, it’s already hard enough when you meet the criteria. Now prohibitively expensive too, just feeling pretty depressed about the whole thing today tbh

Snap! I feel the same questioning if its worth nearly spending a grand every three months.

I wonder what Eli Lilly will do if the UK market halves or worse. Maybe nothing, they might willingly sacrifice their UK customer base to retain access to the US I suppose.

I think you’re probably spot on. If a generous estimate is approx 1 million current users in the UK (based on 1.5million current users of a WLI and ‘over half’ on MJ) that’s a tiny, tiny minnow compared to the American market.