Warning issued over online weight loss medication

A consultant pharmacist has issued warnings about the risks to patients when obtaining weight loss medications online, at a virtual GP Pharmacy event, yesterday.

Philip Newland-Jones, consultant pharmacist in diabetes and endocrinology, University Hospital Southampton, said that he had ‘a patient hospitalised this week who managed to get prescribed a weight loss medicine from an online pharmacy with a BMI of 21.’

The BMI healthy weight range is 18.5 to 24.9 and recently NHS England stipulated that integrated care boards must meet the costs of funding access to the weight-loss injections in primary care settings for patients with a BMI of 40 or higher, and four or more weight-related comorbidities.

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Mr Newland-Jones added that he was ‘writing to the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) to report a pharmacy for completely inappropriate prescribing online of weight loss medicines. And I will do that every single time I come across it.’

The session, Treatment of Obesity: what pharmacists need to know, covered new weight-loss jabs and pills, the role of GP pharmacists in advising patients and liaising with private providers and was part of new event aimed at pharmacists working in general practice. 

Mr Newland-Jones advised the delegate pharmacists to read the GhPC guidance on providing services at a distance including on the internet, as this area of service is likely to expand.

‘I think the guidance was very timely and very welcome, given that it's likely that pharmacists will continue to expand in their provision of obesity medicines, both in the NHS and the private sector going forwards. But we need to get this right if we want to make sure it hits properly,’ he said.

GPhC chief pharmacy officer, Roz Gittins, said: 'Our guidance to strengthen safeguards to prevent unsafe supply of medicines online was updated in February 2025. That included adding medicines used for weight-management to the list of high-risk medicines requiring extra safeguards before being prescribed.

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'The guidance also emphasises that the prescriber should work within national prescribing guidelines for the UK and follow good practice guidance.

'When supplying medicines used for weight-management, the prescriber also has to independently verify the information the person provides, which may include access to the person’s clinical records, or contacting the person’s GP, their regular prescriber, or a third-party provider, and they need to be able to have timely two-way communication with the person.

'We will continue to follow up on all concerns raised with us and during our inspections, check that GPhC-registered pharmacies are meeting our standards.'

It follows warnings from pharmacy bodies that NHS provision for weight loss jabs ‘unlikely’ to meet demand and concerns from the Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) about a ‘Wild West situation’ of unregulated cosmetic procedures taking place in pop up’ shops on high streets, in public toilets and hotel rooms.

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This story was updated on 26 June with General Pharmaceutical Council comment.