‘People are desperate’: how Mounjaro users are beating the price rise

Sarah le Brocq’s Mounjaro prescription has jumped in price by more than £200 per month - Asadour Guzelian

In January, when Sarah le Brocq signed up for a year’s supply of weight loss jab Mounjaro at £99 per month, it felt like a good deal. All the more so when it helped her to lose 7st in weight.

Last month, however, the pharmacy she receives her private prescription from notified her that things would be coming to an abrupt end, with prices jumping by more than £200 per month.

The rise, which follows Donald Trump’s insistence that US pharmaceutical companies like Eli Lilly (Mounjaro’s manufacturer) stop “subsidising other countries”, is shocking, the 43-year-old says.

“It’s not just a little price increase, that’s a pretty significant one. It’s making me ask if I can afford that,” she adds.

Eli Lilly has said the price hikes are a result of measures designed to correct price inconsistencies between the UK and other countries, including in Europe.

This curveball is forcing many of the UK’s estimated 1.5 million weight loss jab users – around 90pc of whom are taking Mounjaro – to decide whether it is a necessity they must keep paying for or a luxury they can no longer justify.

The NHS stipulates that patients must have a BMI over 40 and four co-morbidities to qualify for a prescription of semaglutide or tirzepatide, the active ingredients in weight loss drugs. The high threshold means that most users obtain them privately, thereby thrusting them into the whims of drug companies’ pricing fluctuations.

At the Labour party conference last week, Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, said millions more people should be able to access the jabs via the NHS so they were not only available to the wealthy.

While Mounjaro originally entered the market at a lower price than Wegovy (the semaglutide jab that made Novo Nordisk Europe’s richest company in late 2023), the booming market has not had the desired effect on patients’ purse-strings.

“People are so desperate. You got them hooked on a drug in a way because they’re seeing the results and they’re feeling better and they’re desperately going to want it,” le Brocq says. As a result, they will go to increasing lengths to continue.

Le Brocq says the original £99 monthly price – effectively the cost of a couple of meals out – was doable given that she is eating less. However, the rises mean she will now need to cut back on things like activities out with her daughter.

She is also “uhmming and ahhing” about shopping around between different online pharmacies to take advantage of more favourable sign-up deals – or switching to Wegovy, which is cheaper but less effective.

There are two strategies now abounding among users battling the price rises: buy higher doses that need to be used less often, or go cold turkey to avoid being sucked into the first in a long line of ever-rising costs.

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As obesity is a chronic condition, many people accept that they may need to be on the drugs forever.

Hazel Bailey has lost 4.5st over the past nine months yet has had to ditch Mounjaro after her fees were put up by £100 per month. The nurse, 41, has now switched to a private Wegovy prescription despite being on an NHS waiting list for bariatric (weight loss) surgery.

“It’s bonkers,” she says of the fact that she qualifies for one form of weight loss assistance on the health service but not another.

This seemingly haphazard criteria is perhaps inevitable when so many people are clamouring for weight loss jabs – yet they are not an easy way out, she says: “People think it’s a miracle drug but it’s not.

“You still need to eat well, drink lots of water and exercise. Without that you won’t lose [weight].”How the weight-loss jab Mounjaro works

Despite her weight loss on Mounjaro effectively making her more likely to relieve pressure on the NHS down the line, Bailey has been forced to consider the costs from the moment she decided to begin using Mounjaro.

“At first I was struggling justifying £150 per month. However, when you break it down into four weeks, £37.50 is not a lot,” she says. “I would easily spend that on junk food and fizzy drinks or towards a takeaway each week.”

Others, on hearing of the price changes, began stockpiling to cushion the financial blow.

“People are being incentivised to ‘bulk buy’, possibly being supplied with several months’ supply of medication, which does not align with the need for regular reviews and monitoring before further supplies are made,” says one user, who has posted their concern on Reddit.

Pharmacies are supposed to ensure users only have the required supply for safety reasons and to avoid shortages (which have already hit higher doses of Mounjaro and Wegovy).Mounjaro’s price has shot up in the UK, affecting more than a million Britons - Matthew Horwood/Getty Images

Some users admit to stockpiling enough to get them to their “goal weight”, at which point they will taper down their dosage or switch to a cheaper drug.

One Reddit user writes: “I don’t think I’ll be buying any more, I am a stone away from my goal and I think I have enough to get there and then taper down the doses for a few months by split dosing. I suspect a lot of people who have stockpiled have done so to have enough to get to the end.”

The price shock has led to the proliferation of a weight loss jab black market with people purchasing unlicensed versions from the internet or overseas, where safety in accordance with UK regulations cannot be guaranteed.

Others have confessed to purchasing unlicensed retatrutide, an Eli Lilly drug that is still in clinical trials.

Le Brocq, the director of an obesity charity, is concerned about the possible health risks of these black market purchases for those who administer the unregulated drugs to themselves. She says she has heard of people being given insulin instead of the desired drug, a substitution that can be life-threatening.

The risk of regaining the weight they have lost looms large for those now locked out of using Mounjaro – not only for health reasons but financially, too.

“You kind of think, it’s such a waste of money and effort to get to this point” if it can’t be continued, says le Brocq.

“Weight is such a controversial subject, and the fact that everyone is desperate to aesthetically look a certain way… this will really drive people to keep doing that at any cost.”

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