Four popular online pharmacies have been named in an investigation into the “inappropriate” prescribing of weight loss jabs.
Consumer watchdog Which? said today that it posed as a patient seeking glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) medicines for the first time “to test the prescribing processes of major online pharmacies”.
Read more: High street health retailers in weight loss investigation
It added that it used a genuine overweight BMI, but “falsely claimed to have high blood pressure” to “test whether any pharmacies would interrogate” the false claim before supplying the drugs.
“Superdrug, MedExpress, Voy and Zava all sent us weight loss jabs based on false health information and a fake GP address, without seeking to verify this information first,” it said.
Some pharmacies checked
Which? noted that some pharmacies “did flag false information early on” or “require proof of qualifying health conditions”.
Among these were Boots, Numan, Morrisons and Pharmacy2U, who “refused” to provide a consultation “without genuine GP details”, it said.
Simple Online Pharmacy and MyJuniper did not flag the fake GP address, Which? added, but “did require proof of high blood pressure to proceed”.
Regulator responds
Which? shared its findings with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC), which said it was “concerned about the inappropriate prescribing of weight management medications” identified in the investigation and “will consider these findings as part of [its] ongoing review of emerging issues and risks in this area”.
The watchdog also reached out to the pharmacies that supplied GLP-1s based on false information.
It said Superdrug responded that its clinician “made a prescribing decision using their clinical judgement based on the information provided by the patient”.
Read more: Weight loss jabs: GPhC sets out ‘targeted actions’ for pharmacies
Meanwhile, Zava told Which? that “patient safety was ‘paramount’” and it “relied on the ‘integrity and honesty of [its] patients when they provide personal health information’”.
Zava “also stated that providing false information was a breach of terms”, Which? added.
The watchdog said its investigation “revealed varied interpretations of weight loss jab prescribing rules, with some pharmacies apparently routinely prescribing the medication ‘off label’ without requiring evidence of health-related conditions at all”.
Read more: Online pharmacies: Convenience at the expense of safety?
It comes after a new review by the GPhC last month set out “targeted actions for improvement” for pharmacies providing weight loss drugs.
The regulator said at the time that while “many pharmacies” deliver weight loss services appropriately, “standards were not always consistently met”.
