‘It’s absolutely open to abuse’: web awash with weight-loss drug offers
After Andy King was told he was not eligible to receive weight-loss jabs on the NHS, he turned to the internet to order them privately.But before long, he was inundated with promotions.“Every other advert on my social media feed is an offer to have a Black Friday deal on the drugs,” he said.In a video call with the Guardian, King, a 59-year-old leisure management consultant and coach, demonstrated what happens when he looks for such medications.Opening a search engine, he typed three words: “Weight loss drugs.
”The results were myriad, with links to high-street pharmacies offering the jabs with various prices and discounts.“Weight Loss Injections – Black Friday – Save £20,” the first result read, with a link to LloydsPharmacy.Below it, an advert from Superdrug claimed: “Multiple weight-loss treatments available.New customers get 10% off with code…”“It’s just full of price-led offers for the drug,” said King.Clicking on one of the adverts, King said the situation felt like a transaction.
“It just feels like this is price led,You can have it if you want it,” he said,“There will be a consultation that you need to go through,But I’m not buying a consultation,”Promotion of prescription-only medications, such as the weight-loss jabs Wegovy and Mounjaro, is illegal, and a growing number of online pharmacies have been reprimanded by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) for such adverts.
However, experts are also concerned about the aggressive promotion of weight-loss services that fall within the law.These tend to exploit loopholes in legislation, such as the ability to advertise a consultation or service, but often include references to weight-loss jabs and their effects, too.Oksana Pyzik, an associate professor of pharmacy practice and policy at UCL school of pharmacy, said: “This trend reflects an unprecedented hype around weight-loss medications, with many consumers viewing them as lifestyle products rather than regulated medicines.The public is often unaware of the requirement for prescriptions and consultations.”The perspective is shared by David Hatton, a semi-retired financial IT programme manager.
“I’ll be honest, it makes you feel like it’s not a prescription drug,” he said,Hatton, 62, sought out weight-loss jabs after finding his GP was not in a position to provide a prescription,He used AI to search online for the best price for the medications,“You can just ask the question: ‘What’s the best online pharmacy to buy [the weight-loss jab] Mounjaro?’ and it lists six of them, and it gives you links into them, and it tells you the benefits and disadvantages,” he said,Hatton and King point out that Mounjaro, which is more expensive than Wegovy, is generally presented first on websites alongside statistics showing it results in greater weight loss.
The use of promotion codes affected his purchasing, Hatton said.“I almost don’t buy anything unless it’s got a discount code available, because I assume that they priced in that people are going to do that, even with pharmaceuticals,” he said.“And it certainly proved to be the case.I think it’s only one month I haven’t got at least 15 to 20% off.”While discount codes are often described as applying to a weight-loss “service”, as opposed to the medicine, in order to comply with advertising rules, the bottom line is that access to the medications becomes cheaper.
“I don’t see it as a service at all, because I don’t see they offer a service,” said Hatton.“I mean, to me, it’s total window dressing.”Marie*, 34, turned to weight-loss jabs after a friend used them successfully.“I think it’s crazy how easily you can buy it and how little aftercare there is,” she said, adding that it was very easy to lie when filling in forms for a prescription through online pharmacies.King, who has ordered weight-loss jabs from several online pharmacies, said he also had concerns about how easy it was to access the medications.
“The obvious thing is, it’s just about weight loss.And who doesn’t want to lose a few pounds? Not many people.So it’s absolutely open to abuse,” he said.“With a couple of exceptions, who asked for photos to be sent in, you can just tell [the online pharmacy] anything, and they’re happy for you to do that because they’re trying to sell your drugs and make a margin.You know, it’s like we’re all kidding ourselves here.
”Marie, who has experienced disordered eating, said she continued to see promotions for weight-loss jabs.“In the last sort of three months, every time they come up on my Instagram, which is the only social media I use, I’ve been saying not interested, because it’s quite triggering,” she said.When asked what exactly the posts were advertising, Marie was clear.“The medication,” she said.
The real test for Nigel Farage will be if donors follow foot soldiers to Reform
On brand as ever, Nigel Farage got the news that Reform appears to have surpassed the Tories in membership numbers while attending a traditional Boxing Day hunt.He was filmed for TikTok and Instagram wearing tweeds and a flat-cap, getting the news on his phone. He said: “We’ve done it. We’re through. How about that? We’re now the official opposition
MPs do not – and should not – always follow judicial orders | Letters
Stephen Sedley, writing of parliament’s freedom of speech and action, says it has “for centuries reciprocated by respecting court decisions and orders” (Letters, 19 December). This is to forget, for example, the 2011 naming, in defiance of court orders, of Ryan Giggs and Fred Goodwin, the origins of which lay in the Trafigura controversy of 2009, when solicitors who had claimed MPs were covered by a gagging injunction withdrew their claim after an MP referred to the injunction in a written question.The reality is that although the Commons has a rule restricting references in the house to current court cases (the “sub judice” rule), it reserves the right to defy judges who threaten to ignore their duty to respect parliamentary free speech. The same also applies to judicial attempts to undermine parliament’s ability to protect itself from people who illegitimately interfere with its work.Parliament should exercise its rights with moderation and restraint, but judges should also show moderation and restraint when their rulings might restrict democratic decision-making
Labour must not duck House of Lords reform this time | Brief letters
So more appointments to the House of Patronage (Sue Gray given peerage as Labour seeks to rebalance Lords, 20 December). And more ludicrous titles. A Labour government with a huge majority has a unique opportunity finally to sort out the Lords. All it requires is political will. The Blair government introduced a series of major constitutional reforms, but left the Lords as unfinished business
Reform UK claims to be ‘real opposition’ with more members than Tories
Reform UK has said it believes it now has more members than the Conservatives, surpassing 131,000 on Boxing Day.The party said it had hit the milestone of 131,680, which is the number of members the Conservatives had when Kemi Badenoch won the leadership election in the autumn.In a stunt to mark the moment, Reform released a videos showing a message that appeared to be projected on to Conservative party HQ in the middle of the night, telling Badenoch that Nigel Farage’s party was the “real opposition” to Labour.Badenoch hit back on Thursday evening, calling the membership counter a “fake” and accusing Reform of “manipulating British voters”. She also claimed that Farage was wrong to say his party had surpassed the Conservatives in members – without saying how many her party had
How parties have come under fire over complaints against MPs
Scandals involving MPs are no rarity. They seem to come along in batches every few years. There were the sleaze allegations that rocked John Major’s government in the 1990s, the #MeToo reckoning in 2017 and the succession of them that helped bring down Boris Johnson’s government in 2022.As part of Labour’s drive to modernise parliament, the responsibility for handling some of the more serious misconduct complaints against MPs is to be handed over to the independent parliamentary process. This would mean that rather than investigating them internally, parties would refer complaints of bullying, harassment and sexual misconduct to the Independent Complaints and Grievance System (ICGS)
Political parties to hand role of investigating misconduct by MPs to independent body
Political parties are on course to hand over responsibility for examining allegations of bullying, harassment and sexual misconduct by MPs to parliament’s independent investigator.A parliamentary committee is preparing to endorse proposals to refer complaints about MPs’ misconduct to the Independent Complaints and Grievance System (ICGS), instead of letting political parties deal with them.Sources on the modernisation committee, which is considering reforms to parliamentary procedures and standards, told the Guardian it was supportive of the change. Unlike select committees, MPs on the modernisation committee are appointed by their party whips.Under the proposal, political parties would defer any complaints of bullying, harassment and sexual misconduct against MPs to the ICGS, which was set up in 2019 after Westminster was rocked by the #MeToo movement
Maggie Smith remembered by David Hare
Quincy Jones remembered by Mark Ronson
Looking back on landmarks of US Black history from an era of erasure – in pictures
Preston’s golden age: mysterious guerrilla art tackles everything from toilets to Shakespeare
And the 2024 Braddies go to … Peter Bradshaw’s film picks of the year
‘Still so relatable’: how teenage discovery of the Brontës fostered career in literature