Cost of weight loss drug Mounjaro to be heavily discounted across UK pharmacies amid price hike

[EricTheGardener]

https://news.sky.com/story/cost-of-weight-loss-drug-mounjaro-to-be-heavily-discounted-across-uk-pharmacies-amid-price-hike-13419987#

Just seen this hmmm

I bet they don’t pass it on. Asda’s new prices are pretty steep. They’ll see an opportunity and take it I suspect.

Just coming to report this too 😆😬🧐🤔

I think we might have a clearer picture come October. Would love to be in a position to get a pen to last me until it's October.

Isn't this just the rebate scheme though?

Unfortunately I think this refers to the rebate scheme, which suppliers have already taken into account with their new prices.

I’ve had a look at Asdas today as need a 10mg its £279 which puts it way out of reach. I could do to about £180 reluctantly so looks like my MJ journey is over unfortunately

I also think this is also the rebate scheme looking at the prices we are seeing, so it’s not further discounts,

ASDA have always been one of the most expensive places to buy it.

The reporting on this is several days behind what has been discussed on here and on Reddit. This is about the rebate scheme as PP have mentioned, and will have already been taken into account by pharmacies that have already published their post Sept 1st pricing.

It’s advisable not to come off instantly, you have to come off gradually going back down through to lower doses, so people might just as well stay on it and continue their normal dose

@BrendaSmall where have you seen advice that you must go down doses before stopping Mounjaro? There is no issue with just stopping taking it, if that's what you want to do. You don't have to go down doses before stopping. Some people choose to, but it's not a requirement.

Edit: removed duplicate post

It’s recommended on all the places I’ve read about it!
im on 12.5 and I’m staying on it as I’ve still got plenty of weight to lose, my concern is though that I have enough doses to last me 16 weeks and if I don’t order for a while I’ll be expecting by the suppliers to start again at 2.5

@BrendaSmall it's not something I've seen advised as necessary anywhere. Of course you can move down doses if you want, but it is also absolutely fine to stop without doing that. There's nothing in any of the instructions about this medication that states you must step down doses before stopping. If you want to switch to Wegovy, many pharmacies are suggesting stopping Mounjaro, waiting a week, and then starting Wegovy, for example.

I think maybe Brenda panic bought from multiple pharamacies so won’t need to buy for a while so when she does buy it again she won’t have a paper trail to show she has been taking it contionously so it will look like she has had a long break and therefore the pharamacy would say she needs to start at 2.5. Is this right?

If you got them from one supplier they will know you bulk bought so will be fine to order after a longer break.

Hmm. I presume you meant to sound slightly PA here?

I didn’t panic buy, I knew that if I didn’t buy a few pens now I’d have to come off MJ because I’d never be able to afford it. So I worked out what I’d need to get almost to goal and bought a bundle that would take me as near as possible. I then bought another pen to titrate down if need be. I worked out last night that I’d have spent nearly £700 more if I’d paid the new prices. I couldn’t have afforded that. As it was I loaded up my emergency credit card to do that. But there was no panic involved, just a lot of thought. You’re right, I probably won’t be able to place another order in the future as I will be stretching pens and using golden doses. And my BMI will hopefully be lower than the cut off to start as a new customer. But I won’t be ordering any more after this anyway. If I’ve not hit goal by then I’ll have to change to my own steam.

Now you can say that’s selfish if you like, but what exactly did you expect- people to sit there and do nothing, knowing they’d be priced out of the game?? People are just trying to hang on to something that’s positively affecting their health and lives. Most pharmacies kept stock for their regular customers. Typically I had just left my regular supplier a few days before the announcement.
I think you may well find that there is a lot of stock available in the future and that pharmacies drop prices because less people are buying it (because they already did) and many others are changing to Wevovy.

I didn’t mean to sound PA at all. I thought I was just explaining the situation to the other poster. I had wondered about buying more too but I was worried about the situation you outlined or being in a situation where I needed to go up dose because the lower dose wasn’t effective anymore but been stuck with lots of pens of the current dose.

Isn't this Eli Lilly back tracking because they've realised how much business they are going to lose because the British market won't pay the inflated prices.

Everyone I know is switching to wegovy. The new mounjaro prices are unaffordable. So Eli Lilly are going to lose their booming British trade.

I don't think anyone is backtracking. I think Eli Lily were pushed into increasing prices by Trump's government and they are addressing the excessive price hikes by enabling pharmacies to claim rebates and pass the savings on to the customer. I expect this was anticipated and planned for, but wouldn't have been common knowledge at the time of the announcement of price increases.

My apologies then.

Oushk said last night their prices already reflect the rebate scheme if that is what they talking about.

Oushk buy the pen at Eli Lilly list price eg. 15mg £330 + VAT.

By the time they dispense the pen the cost for a pen is £415 for them (when they take into account all their overheads). They sell the pen at £310. So at a loss until they get the rebate in arrears (they didn't say what the rebate was). A huge impact on their cash flow waiting for rebates.

Unless Eli Lilly are talking about further cost saving schemes, while there may be a little shift in the prices, but I am not holding my breath for any significant changes at this stage.

No problem. I’m sorry for stressing you out.

@BrendaSmall im with Asda and they have said you can just stop taking it but you’ll likely be more hungry. They don’t advise I need stage it down. I was on 10mg but couldn’t get it as was out of stock so now on 7.5mg for the next 3 weeks, I can already feel less suppression as someone who took to 7.5mg to feel any so it’s annoying as 10mg was the right dose for me. I couldn’t get any more pens as out of stock at Asda so I couldn’t buy extras, checked in daily but unable to order. I can’t afford to titrate down with 10mg £270 and 7.5mg £250 it’s simply unaffordable for me. I’ve checked tonight and I can jump up automatically up one dose of wegovy to 0.5 pen so I might do that or I might just try and maintain my current weight and try to loose the last stone without.