Talk me down I’m in a right state. Didn’t realise it was possible to buy multiple pens- head in sand! Did everyone order multiple pens? What can I do?

[cinnamonbunlover]

Did anyone else just order one pen? I feel so stupid!

I heard about the price rise and orders one pen one hour after it was announced. Then it all went a bit crazy. I was very upset like a lot of people are and as I often do stick my head in the sand and didn’t engage in the productive chats on here.

Now two weeks in saw a Reddit post stating some providers were offering 3 pens per person? And that others had stockpiled from multiple pharmacies and their own.

I had no idea I could do this and feel a bit thick now. I’ve lost 3.5 stone and have 2 to go. I’ve now started 7.5 mg. I’ve stalled a lot since may and have been very unwell so don’t increase does. Regretting staying at 5mg now.

Regretting not ordering more pens!!

What a mess.

I might switch to wegovy but it’s not as good as Mounjaro (previous experience of saxenda )

Someone please tell me what to do.

What to do is not panic! No one has any stock now anyway because of all the panic buying!

EL have paused deliveries as well which hasn’t helped but if folks bought sensibly in the first place there wouldn’t be so much of a supply problem

With any luck it will all settle down in the next 4-6 weeks. You’ll be fine 🙂

I totally agree. I was shot down on here when I said the same, with people patronisingly saying things like “I’m not panic buying, I was paying attention to the situation and planning ahead”.

It’s this kind of “I’m alright, Jack” attitude that makes me despair about the state of the country nowadays.

Yep, and I was out of the country so couldn’t order, now I can’t get hold of any.

Ps I bought one pen

It's not a mess, you're not stupid. Buying multiple pens was a possibility if you could afford the several hundred pounds outlay, which not everyone could have done at the drop of a hat. Some pharmacies very quickly restricted purchases to existing customers only, and to only buying 1 pen, so for many it wasn't possible to buy multiple pens.

You bought an extra pen when you heard about the price rises, which was probably a sensible choice. Why on earth would you be panicking now and beating yourself up about it?

Now, what you need to do is work out how many weeks worth of doses you have and then how much a new pen will be at the new prices. Then work out if you can afford that, and for how many more pens. Estimate how many you might need to get to target, and see if you can fund that. If it's too expensive, that's when you might consider switching to Wegovy.

I’m convinced that a certain pharmacy started the panic buying by telling people they’d sell them 3 pens at a time and then changing it to two when they realised what they’d started. That just snowballed to other pharmacies. I get that people and situations are different but there was a whole lot of “I’m alright Jack”, like you said.

I will admit that I got sucked in. I placed a bundle order but it was turned down. Now that my sensible head is back on again I’ve simply ordered again with my regular supplier. I always order in good time anyway and have enough to keep me going until my next pen arrives. I’ll deal with the next one when the time comes

I presume your provider was one of the ones who were allowing that? As not all were. Simple Online Pharmacy and medicine marketplace are only allowing one and Simple online Pharmacy did allow you to buy 2 pens but this changed the evening before it was announced, meaning someone like me who ordered just after their pen had finished has ended up with 1 pen and can’t order another which will allow me to keep injecting when I’m on holiday😫

Even if I order next week, they are saying it will be 7 to 10 days before I’ll receive the pen and I’ll be away. I’m happy they allow 1 pen only but not allowing you to order after 2 weeks when they know they’ve got such a backlog isn’t helping existing patients.

Don’t feel thick. I have nothing but contempt for some of the greed I’ve seen on this board since the price rises were announced.

Also, @cinnamonbunlover Saxenda is liraglutide, whereas Wegovy is semaglutide, so a different medication. Wegovy is more effective than Saxenda.

I placed an order on the 15th of August, before the price increase was announced….and I'm still waiting for the delivery…. I’m now 2 weeks since my last injection. I’ve had nothing but fake info and excuses…and this is from Asda. I’m raging as they’ve taken the money already, but on one occasion told my it was reviewed and processed therefore available for collection, then not available so they'll post, now, it’s still pending and was meant to be reviewed yesterday, still nothing.

Don’t panic. Things will calm down. Also, some pharmacies (the ethical, non-profiteering ones) didn’t allow you to buy more than one pen anyway.

The whole situation is shameful, and stockpiling (whilst understandable) is irresponsible and has made a bad situation worse for everyone.

V sensible advice from pp’s here. One day at a time..

I ordered a single pen from 4 different companies, I got 2 so a 50% success rate . Thank goodness for credit cards. When those run out I’ll deal with it then as refuse to pay silly prices and line some greedy wotsits pockets

I thinks ordering ‘bundles’ has been an option for while so if you didn’t know that your provider likely didn’t offer multiple pens. I actually ordered from different pharmacies as the multiple options don’t suit me (they tend to move up the doses) i did ask one provider for 2 pens as they said we could add it to the notes but a week later they looked at it and said they couldn’t do it.

Just seen an article stating that Lily have released prices and it’s nowhere near as bad as previously stated. Not sure how true that it. Waiting for it to play out.

Hi, I have just seen that WePrescribe currently have stock of all doses at the pre September price increase and will let you order 2 pens. I have used these before and not had any problems.

Thanks everyone I feel much better now!

It is disappointing that the pharmacies simultaneously allowed people to order multiple and for people to use multiple pharmacies seems unethical to me. Surely this could lead to stockpiling and black market selling.

i think there should be a minimum gap between prescription and but selling three pens at a time sensible too.

My pen was my next one as I’d just “taken the 5th” so I ave 5 weeks from today.

forgetting now about not stockpiling and see what happens next … thanks all

So you are against stockpiling whilst also being in ‘a right state’ and needing ‘talked down’ because you didn’t know about it so couldn’t do it?

Sigh, the contempt seems to be from folks who missed out, either due to finances or timing. All folks did was buy a pen or two extra in the main, and pharmacies who allowed it were mainly those who allowed it before the increases too. This issue isn’t people who were sensible enough to buy an extra pen or two, it’s el Lilly putting prices up hugely at short notice and limiting stock. The pharmacies didn’t know either. I ordered one extra pen as my supplier offered it to me, as they always did. And they also closed to new customers,to prevent people trying to multi buy across pharmacies. I only saved 40 quid as in maintenance, but if anyone holds that in contempt. Then,…tough.

😂😂😂

The panic buying started well before Oushk (I assume that is who you are referring too) answered a question asking if they allowed 3 pens and saying they have always allowed up to 3 pens on orders. They changed their normal 3 to 2 when they saw how many people were ordering.

I placed extra order as soon as the news was confirmed, well before the Oushk live, most sensible people would have.

The problem wasn't lack of stock, the problem was Eli Lilly restricting stock when they had never previously (except for 12.5mg and 15mg which were already under allocation) and Oushk never took any orders for any stock they were not already allocated/expected (and will honour those orders).

Everyone's anger at this situation is directed at the wrong people, those that ordered and pharmacies (who had no notice of such a huge change and Eli Lilly constant changing goal posts) are not to blame.

Some pharmacies such as Oushk heard of the price increases on social media like the rest of us, it was only once they got into their pharmacy mailbox that they found out what was happening.

It always amazes me how the pack turns on itself and starts attacking each other rather than the ones that caused this mess - Trump for his policies and Eli Lilly for mishandling it.

Could the pharmacies, several of them, have acted better, in hindsight knowing what they know now they would probably agree yes, but they were firefighting and reacting to exceptional circumstances not knowing what was happening as all the communications (price changes, rebate schemes, order freezing) were last minute and with little notice and trying to deal with that while still getting increased orders processed, and supporting patients.

Is this aimed at me? I'm reserving my contempt for the people who claim to have successfully ordered from five or more pharmacies before they closed their books. That's indefensible.

Yes

Well I'm beating myself for ordering just as I run out. I did try to buy a pen as soon as the news broke. I'm still waiting. Then I tried a few days later with a past supplier, still waiting. The tried Juniper yesterday in desperation as they had stick. Nothing. No one has even tried to approve me. My last supplier said no because my order wasn't within 4 weeks. So I have put in cash and effort and still have no pen. So it might have made zero difference

I don't really understand your question tbh. Are you asking whether to switch to wegovy? If so, there's loads of posts on here about it, have a read around

The first 7 posters answered it!!

Thanks