Pharmacy leaders be questioned by MPs over the private sector provision of weight-loss medication and concerns around the regulation of black-market products.
The Health and Social Care Committee will tomorrow hear from a number of organisations including Boots, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) as part of its ongoing inquiry into food and weight management.
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The evidence sessions will also include questions on improving access to weight loss medications on the NHS, their cost-effectiveness, and whether providers are offering effective wrap-around care alongside them.
During the first evidence session the cross-party committee will hear from Boots’ superintendent pharmacist Claire Nevinson, Pharmacy2U chief medical officer Dr Kieran Seyan, and public policy and partnerships lead at Eucalyptus (Juniper), coalition of responsible digital health, Dr Simon Doyle.
In the second session MPs will question NICE’s programme director for commercial, managed access and medicines policy John Spoors, deputy director of criminal enforcement at the MHRA Andy Morling, and lead clinical advisor for the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC), Neha Ramaiya.
The committee has highlighted a significant increase in prescriptions of weight-loss jabs, citing figures from clinical research company IQVIA showing that in July last year some 2.37 million packs of weight-loss jabs, known as GLP1s, were prescribed to individuals in the UK. This is up from 490,000 compared to July 2024.
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Only a small proportion of these individuals using GLP-1s are accessing them through the NHS due to high national prescribing thresholds and limited resources, the committee added.
An investigation by The Pharmacist found that not only are the national thresholds limiting the eligible numbers, but ICBs are imposing their own, even stricter, eligibility criteria.
In some areas, this meant excluding patients with unstable mental illness, while in others it prioritised those from more deprived areas.
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Meanwhile, the committee said that the MHRA is trying to tackle dangerous online advertising of GLP-1s and seizing illegally traded products – including drugs containing insulin and products not licensed in the UK.
In our first podcast episode, The Pharmacist spoke to Mr Morling about this growing black market for illegal weight loss drugs and how these operations are uncovered.
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