As of October 28 2024, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has received 10 UK spontaneous reports with GLP-1RAs indicated for weight management that report a fatal outcome, it today (November 1) told C+D.
However, the medicines regulator stressed that it is not possible to determine whether the GLP-1RA was responsible for a death reported.
Read more: Wegovy: Pharmacists urged to report ‘misuse’ amid 46 hospitalisations
A reported death or adverse reaction does not necessarily mean it has been caused by the medicine, only that the reporter had a suspicion it may have been, it added.
Underlying or concurrent illnesses and other medicines the patients may have been taken at the time of their death may be responsible and such events can also be coincidental, it said.
Read more: ‘It terrifies me’: Girl landed in A&E after buying Wegovy from Boots
But the MHRA also revealed a further increase in hospitalisations connected with weight loss jabs.
As of the same date this week, it has received 7,228 reports of the common gastrointestinal reactions of nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea in association with GLP-1RAs indicated for weight management – which include popular drugs Wegovy and Mounjaro.
Of these reports, 68 reported hospitalisation of the individual, it added.
Last week, the regulatory body announced that it knew of 46 hospitalisations as of August 16 – suggesting there have been an additional 22 reports of hospitalisations in two months, representing a 48% increase.
“Report cases of misuse”
The MHRA last week urged healthcare professionals to “report cases of misuse” and “inform patients about the common and serious side effects associated with GLP-1RAs”.
The update warned healthcare professionals to “be aware there have been reports of potential misuse of GLP-1RAs for unauthorised indications such as aesthetic weight loss”.
Read more: Make superintendents ‘responsible’ for stricter Wegovy safeguards, says GPhC
The regulator said that “healthcare professionals should…be alert for signs of misuse of these medicines in their patients, warn these patients that they are at risk of side effects and report any adverse reactions”.
It added that “patients should also be warned of the risk of falsified GLP-1RA medicines for weight loss if not prescribed by a registered healthcare professional and be aware that some falsified medicines have been found to contain insulin”.
“At some point, we’re going to have a death”
It comes after C+D exclusively reported in June that a “young girl” was rushed to A&E for urgent treatment after presenting with life threatening symptoms after taking weight loss GLP-1RA drug Wegovy that she had obtained through Boots Online Doctor.
At the time, an anonymous A&E doctor warned that the incident was part of a growing pattern, adding that “in the last month or two, every time [they had] done a shift pretty much [they] had some patient who, to a lesser or greater degree, is having a complication from getting these weight loss drugs”.
“At some point, we’re going to have a death, aren’t we?” they added.
That month, Streeting revealed plans for “much closer clinical oversight and regulation” around accessing weight loss drugs from online pharmacies, saying he too was “terrified that someone is going to die”.
Meanwhile, the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) last month announced plans to consult on a raft of “additional safeguards” that online pharmacies offering weight loss drugs must provide, including verifying information provided by patients.
Read more: NHSE proposes offering Mounjaro to nearly 250,000 people over three years
The proposed “extra safeguards” would require pharmacies prescribing or supplying medicines “associated with greater risks including those used for weight loss” to “independently verify the person’s weight, height and/or body mass index (BMI)”.
They also proposed making the superintendent pharmacists responsible for meeting the guidance.
