Less liquid in Mounjaro pens??

[Mermaidmusing]

I’ve been using Mounjaro for 18 months, and for the past year, have always used the Golden dose (5th dose) with a syringe.

Most recently, I stepped down from 10mg to 7.5mg. However, after the 3rd dose, I could see that there didn’t seem to be enough liquid in the pen to get 2 more doses. I took the 4th dose this morning and there’s a little bit of liquid left, but definitely not a full dose.

This seems weird as previously I have always easily extracted a 5th dose and even then there was sometimes a tiny bit left.

Has anyone else noticed this? I’m wondering if they have reduced the excess amount in each pen to prevent people being able to extract a 5th dose.

I’ve decided to step back up to 10mg as I put on 1lb this month, and the new 10mg pen arrived this morning. It looks same as always but will be interested to see if there’s a Golden dose in it.

Yes they have reduced the amount of liquid in the pens,

This has been ongoing for a while. Eli Lilly have been rolling out a new design of pen that has less medication in it, in order to prevent people from using the leftover medication as an extra dose. Although Lilly refer to it as making it easier to use and less confusing!

Here is an article from April 2026 about the change

https://www.smgconferences.com/editors-corner/6715-news--eli-lilly-introduces-updated-mounjaro-kwikpen-design-in-uk

Most pens are now the new design, you were very lucky to get an old style one.

I think you might have been living under a rock for a while as yes, they’ve removed the ‘golden dose’ in pens now, there’s a few threads on here and Reddit where people share if their providers are still sending out the old style ones but it’s few and far between now unfortunately! It’s annoying but they cottoned on and made the change 😭

Yes, they removed the excess liquid from the pens, so that you can’t get the golden dose anymore.

The pens changed a while ago (about April) and pharmacies have been using up the older pens first and the newer ones have been being sent out - the last three pens I have received have been the newer ones.

Eli Lilly updated the kwikpen hardware to reduce excess leftover liquid after the fourth dose.

There are a few threads about this from when it was announced and I think I also got a message from my prescriber.

Sorry folks, I should have searched the forum before posting! It seems I have indeed been living under a rock! I hadn’t read anything about the pens changing and I definitely wasn’t informed by my provider about this.

That’s so annoying! Getting 5 doses makes a big difference over the course of a year, cost-wise. It’s definitely a cynical exercise by the manufacturer to make even more money.

I’ve just used a syringe and was able to extract an extra 0.2ml so I’ve used that to take a slightly stronger dose today, and I’m stepping up to 10mg next week anyway.

It never really made sense to have a whole extra dose (60 clicks worth) in the pen, as only 8-10 clicks worth should be needed for priming, in total.

All uses of the golden dose were off-label and, yes, Lilly will make more money this way. But equally, it makes sense for them that the mechanics of the pen are in line with the pharmaceutical labelling of the pen.

I've been getting about 0.3ml out of the new pens after doing 4 doses (currently on 12.5mg), which means that I get a full extra dose every other pen, instead of every pen. So, less than before but still better than nothing at all.

Interesting how much people have been getting. I just took my last dose today and still have this much left. It looked like a fair bit today so I’ve kept hold of it. I used to just force the one for the golden dose so do t have any syringes or anything

As far as I’m aware, only the 2.5 mg pens still have the golden dose in them, and I’m sure stocks of those will run down eventually.