The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) has taken action against two major providers of weight loss treatments after both failed to meet all the regulator’s standards at inspection.
According to documents published by the GPhC, online pharmacy Voy left three standards unmet at an inspection on August 11, while Bolt Pharmacy failed to meet two standards at an inspection on July 28.
Voy
In its inspection report, the GPhC said that while Voy had previously agreed to an improvement action plan and made changes to its procedures, it is “still unable to show” that all of its prescribers “are independently verifying the information they are given by people seeking weight loss treatments”.
It added that Voy continues to “unlawfully advertise prescription-only medicines (POMs) to the public”, despite being told by the UK’s advertising and medicines regulators that the ads “contravene the regulations”.
“This makes it more likely that people who may be vulnerable or otherwise easily influenced by such advertisements will use the pharmacy’s website for treatments that may not be clinically appropriate or safe for them,” the GPhC said.
Read more: Exclusive: GPhC takes first enforcement action over POM ads
The regulator also highlighted that Voy’s website “has incentives in place that may encourage the inappropriate use of weight loss medicines” by people for whom the treatments “may not be clinically appropriate or safe”.
It said the website “offers a discount to people for their first month’s treatment with a recently licensed POM, which encourages them to start a treatment plan which may not always be appropriate” - but it noted that this is “still subject to clinical assessment and an independent prescribing decision”.
Areas for improvement
The GPhC’s notice of enforcement action, issued on September 11, sets out a number of improvements that Voy must make by October 9. These are:
- having assurance that its prescribers “are independently verifying the information that people seeking weight management medicines provide, in line with GPhC distance-selling guidance”
- ensuring that all current and future content relating to the pharmacy, both online and offline, complies with the relevant legal and regulatory requirements
- responding to “all outstanding enquiries” from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), and engaging with the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) compliance team “as requested for outstanding compliance cases”
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Voy chief medical officer Earim Chaudry told C+D that the pharmacy has “an established, ongoing relationship with the GPhC, and collaborates with it both on specific matters and more widely”.
“We have worked constructively with them on the points raised, which were primarily related to advertising. Providing safe, effective care to our patients is at the heart of what we do,” he added.
Bolt Pharmacy
In its inspection report for Bolt, the GPhC said the online pharmacy “does not adequately demonstrate that it learns from and acts effectively on all issues identified through its governance and audit processes”.
It said Bolt “completes a small number of marketing compliance reviews” and “identifies some concerns relating to promotional activity” - but its website and social media advertising “does not always follow guidance issued” by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and the ASA.
“This means the pharmacy cannot fully demonstrate that learning from marketing compliance reviews is embedded effectively across the service,” the regulator added.
Read more: ASA rules against Bolt Pharmacy over Facebook weight loss page
The GPhC also noted that Bolt “does not always make sure that it independently verifies” information submitted by patients in online questionnaires.
It said the pharmacy “has a well-documented process for assessing people’s information” but “does not fully demonstrate that it consistently independently verifies patients’ weight, height or BMI before medicines are prescribed”.
“It relies significantly on information and images submitted by people,” the report said. “This means the pharmacy cannot provide sufficient assurance that its safeguards are robust enough to confirm patients are clinically suitable for treatment.”
Read more: Regulators issue warning on ads for unlicensed weight loss drugs
The regulator added that Bolt’s pharmacists “complete an electronic clinical check of prescriptions before dispensing, but do not routinely use prescribing, clinical and verification information to make a suitable clinical assessment”.
This creates a risk that the pharmacist “misses interventions to protect patients’ health and ensure supplies are appropriate”, it said.
Steps being taken
According to the improvement action plan on the GPhC’s website, Bolt has set out 14 changes it plans to make by October 9, including implementing GP Connect to “independently verify height, weight, BMI, medical history and medication against the patient’s live GP record at the point of prescribing”.
It said it will continue improving its prescribing system so that it “reduces and completely restricts the ability of prescribing clinicians to make errors which would traditionally be checked by the pharmacist clinically checking”, including quantity, dose and “prescribing to individuals where certain parameters make them completely outside of protocol”.
Read more: Ads regulator raps Voy over Black Friday weight loss emails
And it told the regulator it will “complete a full compliance audit” of its website, social media and affiliate advertising against MHRA, ASA and CAP guidance to “remove or amend references to POMs and unclear promotional claims or pricing promotions”.
Bolt did not respond to C+D’s request for comment.
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It comes after the GPhC revealed last month that it had taken enforcement action against a pharmacy over the advertisement of POMs for the first time.
In August, the regulator issued an improvement notice against Express Healthcare Limited, trading as PharmacyOnline.co.uk, in what it told C+D “marks an escalation beyond requests to amend or remove” ads.
