The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) has the government’s “full” backing to “tackle the misuse of weight loss medications”, health minister Karin Smyth last week (June 10) revealed.
The comment came after Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) MP Jim Shannon asked “what steps” the Department of Health and Social Care (DH) is taking to address the issue.
Smyth pointed to updated GPhC guidance for online pharmacies published “in response to concerns of unsafe prescribing online”.
Read more: Exclusive: Over 100 UK deaths now linked to GLP-1 RAs
“The GPhC, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) have the powers to investigate and take action against rogue prescribers, products and suppliers,” she added.
“We are clear they have our full support to crack down on services that are putting people in danger,” she stressed.
Patients “must be honest”
Smyth said that “when prescribing weight loss drugs, prescribers – whether NHS or private – are accountable for their prescribing decisions and are expected to take account of appropriate national guidance”.
But “patients themselves must be honest”, she added.
Read more: Ozempicola? Blair’s weight-loss future swerves around safety
She said that patients should be truthful “when providing information to a prescriber so that they receive advice and medicines that are appropriate for them”.
Smyth also revealed that “thus far”, health secretary Wes Streeting has had “no discussions specific to the misuse of weight loss drugs… [with] his counterparts in the devolved administrations”.
New service incoming?
The comments come as C+D yesterday exclusively revealed that over 100 deaths were linked to glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1 RA) medicines by the end of last month.
But the chief pharmaceutical officer (CPhO) for England last week told C+D that there is a “really significant opportunity” for community pharmacy in new weight loss jab services at the NHS Confed Expo in Manchester.
Also speaking on weight loss drugs in a separate session at the conference, NHS England (NHSE) national medical director Sir Stephen Powis stressed that “we are at the very early stages of learning how to use these drugs” and “there is more to learn”.
Read more: Exclusive: CPhO confirms Mounjaro pharmacy service on the cards
And England’s chief medical officer (CMO) Professor Chris Whitty similarly stressed that GLP-1 RAs are “not a get out of jail card”.
Meanwhile, the GPhC announced new rules in February stating that online pharmacies “cannot” prescribe based on online questionnaires alone and must “independently verify” patients’ weight and height before prescribing weight loss drugs.
A month on, C+D revealed that the regulator had already received almost 50 concerns relating to weight management.
