Britain’s biggest pharmacies have enacted strict new online safety protocols in a bid to prevent Brits from lying about their weight to get their hands on slimming jabs.
Doctors have long told how they are treating increasing numbers of slim women who end up in hospital after falsely telling online chemists they are oveweight to pass eligibility checks.
Senior medics have even warned that A&E units were treating casualties of the appetite-suppressing drugs on a daily basis.
But now, pharmacies including Boots, Superdrug and Rowlands have put new personalised measures in place to stop patients who are a healthy weight from accessing Mounjaro, Ozempic and Wegovy.
Such initiatives include front and side full body photographs — with the date visible — half hour long video Teams calls and mandatory follow-up photographic proof of progress on the anti-obesity drugs.
It comes as the UK’s drugs regulator last week also revealed it had removed 150 social media posts selling fake weight loss injections last year alone.
Under NHS guidelines, only patients who have a body mass index (BMI) of over 35, or a BMI of 30 and at least one weight related health problem like high blood pressure, should be prescribed Wegovy.
UK law forbids the sale of such drugs without a prescription from a medical professional.
Pharmacies including Boots have put new personalised measures in place preventing patients who are a healthy weight from accessing Mounjaro, Ozempic and Wegovy
A spokesperson for Superdrug told MailOnline it now requires Brits to provide ‘date verified photographs to evidence their BMI’
In June, however, a reporter for The Times told how she obtained Wegovy from Superdrug and Boots after entering false information online, adding three stone to her true weight.
Although the purchases required the injections to be collected from the store, neither pharmacy carried out any in-person checks before handing over the drug, charging nearly £200 for a month’s supply.
In response, Boots announced that its Online Doctor weight-loss service would require patients to submit additional dated photographs of themselves — front and side full body shots — wearing ‘fitting clothing’ before approving prescriptions.
Now, patients must also provide a photo of themselves and an ID document for verification as well as completing an online consultation form, reviewed by a Boots Online Doctor clinician.
This consists of a series of tick-box questions about their health, including if they have ever suffered any of a list of conditions such as pancreatitis — which Susan McGowan, a 58-year-old nurse from Airdrie in Scotland, developed before she died last September after taking just two low doses of Mounjaro.
Other questions include if there is a family history of thyroid cancer — semaglutide, the active ingredient in the drugs, is also known to increase the risk of thyroid tumours.
Prospective patients are also asked if they’ve taken laxative medication to lose weight — a nod to the significant threat this poses to those with eating disorders.
Patients are only supplied with a prescription if they provide their GP’s details, a spokesperson for Boots said. The company will then contact the GP.
Superdrug, meanwhile, in June, claimed its safeguarding protocols were ‘more comprehensive than those typically found in online medical services’.
Patients registered with the nation’s largest digital pharmacy, Pharmacy2U, must upload two separate images to verify their identity and current weight
The injections, like Ozempic and Wegovy, are designed to help type 2 diabetes patients control their blood sugar levels or for obese people to lose weight for health purposes
The firm also said it relied on ‘the integrity and honesty of our patients when they provide personal health information’.
A spokesperson for Superdrug told MailOnline it now requires Brits to provide ‘date verified photographs to evidence their BMI’.
They added: ‘It is also mandatory for patients to provide their GP details, which we use to notify their GP with any medication prescribed, enabling their GP to inform us of any discrepancies or concerns they may have with the prescription.’
Doctors then check in with patients throughout treatment through a ‘secure private platform’, they said.
By comparison, patients registered with the nation’s largest digital pharmacy, Pharmacy2U, must upload two separate images to verify their identity and current weight.
The company then mandates they upload further images every third consultation ‘to check on progress’.
And Rowlands Pharmacy, which boasts more than 300 branches across England, Scotland and Wales, now requires all patients to attend a 30-minute video consultation on Teams allowing a pharmacist to visually assess them.
Follow-up phone calls may also be made to check on patients’ progress and address any side effects they’re experiencing.
A spokesperson for Asda said: ‘We still require a medical questionnaire — including photographic submissions — to be completed before a review by one of our qualified doctors’
Health officials have already seized more than 600 potentially fake Ozempic pens across the UK since the start of 2023
‘Approximately 10 per cent of patients assessed are not supplied the medicine due to contraindications or unsuitability,’ Stephen Thomas, Rowlands Pharmacy’s superintendent pharmacist, told MailOnline.
Asda Pharmacy, however, hasn’t changed its requirements in recent months.
A spokesperson said: ‘We still require a medical questionnaire — including photographic submissions — to be completed before a review by one of our qualified doctors.
‘They will decide if the medication is appropriate and will create a weight-loss plan.
‘Our doctors will then carry out a check up over the phone 5-7 days after the start of the medication to ensure patient welfare, and patients can contact one of our doctors at any time free-of-charge should they wish to discuss any aspect of their medication.’
About 500,000 people in the UK have been prescribed weight-loss jabs, data shows, but only 5 per cent are estimated to be getting them from the NHS.
The two available on the NHS are known as Wegovy and Saxenda. Ozempic, which contains the same ingredient as Wegovy, is used by the NHS to treat type 2 diabetes.
Some patients are being asked to wait for up to five years for specialist weight management support, according to the Obesity Health Alliance.
Susan McGowan, 58, from Lanarkshire, died from multiple organ failure, septic shock and pancreatitis after taking two low-dose injections of tirzepatide
In parts of the country, some overstretched services have closed their waiting lists entirely.
In December, the nation’s top GP warned that long waits for NHS weight-loss services are driving patients into buying potentially dangerous fake jabs online.
Professor Kamila Hawthorne, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, said she had ‘serious concerns’ about drugs sold by unregulated retailers.
Last year, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) revealed it was removing up to 100 social media posts per day that advertised prescription-only medicines — many from sources that are not legitimate pharmacies.
Earlier this month, Britain’s drugs watchdog the Medicines Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) told trade magazine Chemist+Druggist it took down 150 social media posts ‘actively’ selling counterfeit weight loss drugs in 2024.
Last month, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) issued a warning to advertisers, businesses and influencers to remove online and social media ads for weight-loss prescription-only medicines targeted at members of the public.
It followed a MailOnline investigation that found social media influencers were being encouraged to illegally promote prescription weight loss jabs to their thousands of followers.
