Wegovy launched in the UK

[RunningAndSinging]

It’s finally here! They say a proportion will be reserved for the NHS program which sounds sensible and that it will be available privately. Early days at 8 am on launch day but I can’t see it available anywhere yet. They also say it will be a limited and controlled launch so it may well be hard to get hold of and expensive I guess.

It is still a big step forward after a long wait.

The Heath Express Leaflet is good.

It looks as though there will be four doses in a single pen here but, unlike Ozempic, the concentration of the drug is different for the different dosed pens.

Good news, watching with interest

I am repeating some info from the Ozempic thread but it looks as though it is going to cost around/just under:

£200 for the 0.25, 0.5 and 1mg pens
£250 for the 1.7mg pen
£300 for the 2.4mg pen.

Pharmacies are prioritising existing clients as they know supplies will be short. No one seems to actually have it available yet.

Boots are doing it for £179

I've ordered mine today. Assume it's available if it's on the website to buy?

Here

When you click through to order it's £179.10

Only because I recently had saxenda from them

Amazing - that’s great news.

What size did you get? Did you have to start at 0.25 mg moving over from Saxenda?

The online consultation asked me what dose I ended saxenda on and then said they would decide the starting dose of wegovy based on that

Waiting to hear back tomorrow

How often do you inject yourself?

If there are only 4 doses per pen it could work out really expensive.

It is once per week so a pen lasts four weeks. Yes it is really expensive unfortunately. Some of us on Ozempic (same drug but licensed for diabetes and prescribed for weight loss off licence for the last year or two) have spread the doses out a bit to 10 days or used a bit less from the 1 mg pen to make it last 6 doses.

Hopefully the price will come down as manufacturing catches up with demand and competition from other drugs comes to the market.

So I got a message back

I've been approved to collect within 24 hrs from boots

They prescribed the 0.25mg to start.

I bought using Klarna to spread costs. Next payday I get a big-ish bonus so I'll buy it outright

I'd be interested to hear how people get on with it

I don't know anything about saxender dosage but .25mgs of ozempic would be the lowest starting dose so that would be like starting again?
i was hoping to go directly to the dose above 1mg will just have to see what's available. I have been on 1mg of ozempic for months and was hoping to increase that with wegovy.
i'm feeling a bit concerned now as i only have three weeks of ozempic left.

Quickmeds seemed to have 0.25, 0.5 and 1mg available yesterday afternoon (for about 10 minutes) and everywhere else I have looked either has nothing yet or 0.25mg only and/or are keeping this for current clients only. I guess it is early days and perhaps as everyone is new to Wegovy they are making more of the starting dose available first.

Can you just switch straight over from Saxenda to Wegovy? I've got a few Saxenda pens to use up, but I'd like to go over to Wegovy when they're gone.

Anyone know where a first time buyer/user could purchase from?

As a first timer I would try and get hold of 0.25mg Ozempic if possible. There is 2mg of Ozempic in that pen so you can use it for four doses of 0.25 and two of 0.5. I don’t think the same is true with the Wegovy pen.

You might get it from Health Express, Rightangled, Quick Meds or Bury healthcare online for example. Google Ozempic and see what is available.

It still frustrates me how much more expensive than ozempic is, and that you can't choose your on dosing, it's a pre-filled amount.

I think you will be able to count clicks with the UK Wegovy. But the clicks will be different on the different pens as the concentrations are different so we will need to be careful. This image shows one pen with four needles just like the Ozempic pens.

I see from the pictures here that the dosage of Wegovy is twice that of Ozempic. If they are the same thing (not sure about that?) I wonder if that will mean the side effects will be much worse?
I was on Ozempic (for diabetes) but was forced to give it up because it just wasn't available any more. I was upset at the time, but so pleased now that I don't have the side-effects - feel so much better.

Wegovy and Ozempic are the same thing, just different branding and licensed for different uses. Ozempic is licensed for diabetes and Wegovy for weight loss. The doses start the same, but wegovy has two higher dosages. Once you get to a dose that is working well, you don’t have to increase it any further, especially if the side-effects are causing a problem. You are supposed to start at the lowest dose and increase the dose every four weeks until you reach the highest dose (or as high a dose as suits you) and then you stick with that.

That is great that you are feeling so much better since giving up Ozempic. I was considering a break due to the shortages, but now wondering about sticking with it as Wegovy has been released. I do wonder if I would have more energy though.

They will start you on a higher dose, you don't have to start on lowest dose of wegovy

Also, the higher doses are more expensive