Doctors say a wave of young, healthy women need urgent care after taking appetite suppressants Ozempic and Wegovy bought online under false pretenses.
It comes as the NHS’s top doctor issued a warning that the powerful drugs are only designed to help diabetics and the obese. and should not be abused by tourists trying to get ready for the beach.
The emergency doctors, who spoke anonymously, warned that they are seeing cases of “young, beautiful girls” who were not overweight and who had complications from drug abuse “almost every shift.”
Both Ozempic and Wegovy contain semaglutide which may help people lose weight by mimicking an appetite suppressing hormone.
Although effective, medications are increasingly used by normal people and even by people with low weight without a clinical need to consume them, with potentially serious consequences.
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.
Boots’ website for Wegovy prescriptions says patients can get a clinical review of their case in “as little as 24 hours”.
Young women are believed to be obtaining the drug through online pharmacies, which offer them for between £150 and £200 a month after providing false information about their appearance and health.
The doctors, who spoke on condition of anonymity, recently highlighted a case in which a “young woman” ended up in the ER for taking the medication under these circumstances.
They said the patient came to the ER feeling “bad, like she was going to pass out and couldn’t get up…she was really having a hard time eating,” according to the doctor who spoke to the drugstore’s website. Chemist and apothecary.
He was reportedly “not at all overweight” but had managed to get a month’s supply of Wegovy, the weight-loss-specific formulation of semaglutide, for around £150.
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.
Doctors 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 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.
Professor Sir Stephen Powis (pictured), medical director of NHS England, warned the drugs can be dangerous and are not a “quick fix” for people who “just want to lose a few kilos”.
“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”.
Dr Vicky Price, consultant in acute medicine and president-elect of the Society of Acute Medicine, added that there had also been an influx of girls into A&E suffering side effects from medication.
She added: “Almost every shift I’ve done recently has seen a complication due to a girl taking the new weight loss medication they bought from an online pharmacy.” No one has been overweight.
Professor Sir Stephen Powis, medical director of NHS England, also recently highlighted that Britons are illegitimately obtaining and using Ozempic and Wegovy.
He warned that the medications can be dangerous and are not a “quick fix” for people who “just want to lose a few pounds.”
Speaking at the NHS ConfedExpo conference in Manchester yesterday, Sir Stephen said: “We know these new drugs will be a powerful part of our arsenal in tackling obesity, but they must not be overused.”
‘Buying medications online without a doctor’s supervision can lead to complications and dangerous consequences. Medications, including Ozempic and Wegovy, should only be used by people prescribed for obesity or diabetes. I am concerned about reports that people are misusing them; They are not intended to be a quick fix for people trying to get “beach ready.”
Ministers have pinned hopes on using weight loss measures like Wegovy to tackle Britain’s growing obesity crisis and get more Britons 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 their weight.