Doctors claim a “young girl” needed emergency care after receiving the Wegovy weight loss vaccine under false pretenses from Boots, in what they warned was a growing trend.
The doctor, who spoke anonymously, said his patient had obtained the medication, which contains semaglutide, the same ingredient as Ozempic, from a Boots Online Doctor.
He went to the ER feeling “unwell, like he was going to pass out and couldn’t get up… he was really having a hard time eating,” according to the doctor who spoke to the drug shop’s website. Chemist and apothecary.
The patient was reportedly not overweight “at all”, but had apparently managed to secure a month’s supply for around £150, and the doctor claimed to be “absolutely amazed” by the case.
The girl, whose age was not disclosed, was treated for “starvation ketoacidosis,” a life-threatening condition caused by prolonged fasting and where harmful substances called ketones build up in the body.
Boots’ website for Wegovy prescriptions says patients can get a clinical review of their case in “as little as 24 hours”.
Ozempic and Wegovy work by mimicking a hormone that tells the body to suppress appetite and it is suggested this triggered the girl’s health problems.
Ozempic and Wegovy work by mimicking a hormone that tells the body to suppress appetite and it is suggested this triggered the girl’s health problems.
The doctor who reported the girl’s case said this is just the latest in a growing pattern of similar incidents in which patients who should not have received the medication have needed emergency medical care.
They said that in the last two months, during every shift, they had a patient who suffered a complication due to weight loss medications.
They added that in many cases the patient had managed to obtain the medications from an online pharmacy or a private beauty clinic.
“Without a doubt, none of them would meet the criteria,” they said.
Another alarming case was that of a patient who had suffered acute pancreatitis after receiving weight loss injections and “ended up going to intensive care.”
According to NHS guidelines, Wegovy should only be prescribed to patients who have a body mass index (BMI) over 35, or a BMI of 30 and at least one weight-related health problem, such as high blood pressure.
While private prescribers are not required to comply with this, they should still follow general professional guidelines and consider national guidelines to ensure that only patients who need the medicine have access to it.
However, the doctor who reported the girl’s case said that this was not happening and that if the pattern continued, the patient’s death was almost inevitable.
While in theory patients must provide photographs and can tell their GP about their prescription when they get it from an online prescriber, the doctor said these supposed safeguards are being circumvented.
The doctor reported that patients are retouching photographs and time-strapped GPs do not have time to raise the alarm if a patient, who they may not have seen, gets a prescription for Wegovy.
“Boots asks for a photo of you, but obviously he could put up any photo of an overweight person,” they told the website.
“And then they also asked their GP” as a “safety mechanism”, but “GPs are currently under enormous pressure (so) I can’t imagine they are going through all this,” they claimed.
A Boots spokesperson, responding to the claims, said they were concerned to hear about the case and would like to “investigate fully” and have encouraged the doctor or patient in this case to get in touch.
They also insisted that “patient safety is our number one priority” and that it has “a number of safeguards” for its online weight loss services.
This includes “answering questions about their medical and psychological history and providing a photograph”, as well as Boots “informing each patient’s GP of the prescription as an additional safety measure and may contact the patient’s GP if it is necessary”.
Ministers have pinned hopes on using weight loss measures like Wegovy to tackle Britain’s growing obesity crisis and get more Brits back to work.
However, critics say we risk over-medicalizing obesity rather than addressing the poor diet and lack of exercise that trigger the disease in the first place.
There have also been concerns about the drugs’ possible side effects and the fact that patients prescribed them will have to take the injections for life to maintain weight.