A new Channel 4 Dispatches documentary is set to reveal footage of a 16-year-old receiving weight loss jab Wegovy from Boots on two separate occasions by falsely stating she was 18, The Mail Online today (March 4) reported.
Clips of the documentary, which will be aired this evening at 8pm, reveal that Channel 4 was “told about concerns relating to the largest high street pharmacy chain in the country - Boots” - after C+D exclusively reported on a “young girl who became seriously ill after buying weight loss drugs on the Boots website”.
Read more: New online pharmacy regs ‘effective immediately’ amid weight loss risks
The episode shows that in January, 16-year-old undercover journalist Amber was able to order Wegovy from Boots Online Doctor and receive the prescription in-store without any ID checks – despite Boots policy stating that it would “not prescribe weight loss drugs to those under 18 years of age”.
And Amber was able to receive a second dose by lying about her age again on February 12 – despite new General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) online pharmacy rules banning weight loss drug sales without ID checks that came “into effect immediately” earlier that month (February 4).
Read more: GPhC: Photo verification for weight loss drugs ‘not appropriate’
“Boots promises to contact [patients’] GPs as an additional safety measure, but Amber’s GP told her mother that the company has still not been in contact,” Channel 4 said.
“A week after we filmed Amber collecting her drugs for the second time, we found that Boots had added photo ID as a requirement for getting the skinny jab,” it added.
Boots today told C+D that “although Wegovy is licensed for patients aged 12 and over, [its] policy is not to prescribe to under 18s”, and that it has now “strengthened” its ID policy. Read its full statement below.
“Systemic failure”
Health secretary Wes Streeting today told C+D that the documentary’s findings “are deeply concerning”.
“These are licensed medicines with potentially serious side effects, so it is totally unacceptable for any retailer to prescribe them without the correct medical supervision and ID and age verification”, he added.
Read more: PDA: GPhC consultation ‘watering down’ online pharmacy guidance
“Healthcare regulatory bodies such as the GPhC have the powers to investigate and act against rogue prescribers,” he said.
“We expect them to do so and have sought urgent assurances that action is being taken in this case,” he added.
Read more: Wegovy: Ten deaths linked to weight loss injections, says MHRA
And Pharmacists' Defence Association (PDA) policy head Alima Batchelor described the footage of a Boots staff member handing Amber the drugs as “a systemic failure”.
“You expect that there should be verification of the details given…it’s disappointing,” she added.
“High quality of care”
A Boots Online Doctor spokesperson today told C+D that patient safety is the multiple’s “number one priority”.
“We always strive to provide a high quality of care to patients including for those whose weight is impacting their health,” they added.
“Although Wegovy is licensed for patients aged 12 and over, our policy is not to prescribe to under 18s,” they said.
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“Following publication of the updated GPhC guidance, we have strengthened our ID policy to only accept official photographic ID,” the spokesperson added.
“We will further review our processes in consultation with the GPhC and Care Quality Commission (CQC),” they said.
“We urge people not to falsify their health information to obtain any prescription medicine,” they stressed.
“Continue to follow up”
GPhC chief pharmacy officer Roz Gittins told C+D that “it is helpful that Dispatches has highlighted the importance of appropriate checks when medicines are supplied”.
“Our online guidance is clear that we expect the pharmacy team to always verify the person’s identity before the medicine is supplied,” she added.
Read more: Mum landed in hospital after taking Facebook ad Mounjaro
“We have recently updated our guidance to strengthen the safeguards for weight-management medicines, including that there are robust processes in place to verify the information the person provides,” she said.
“We will continue to follow up on all concerns raised with us and during our inspections, check that GPhC-registered pharmacies are meeting our standards,” she said.
Boots sale accelerates?
Meanwhile, Bloomberg today reported that “Sycamore Partners is nearing an acquisition of Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA)” – Boots’ parent company.
It added that WBA and the private equity firm “are putting the final touches on a transaction that may be announced as soon as this week” according to “people with knowledge of the matter”.
Read more: Boots pharmacists given pension update - as WBA sale reignites
Last month, the news giant revealed that WBA was back in talks to “sell itself” to the firm, after the Wall Street Journal reported the rumoured sales talks were “mostly dead” in January.
Neither party commented on the rumours when approached by C+D.
Weight loss worries
Last month, the PDA said that the newly updated online pharmacy rules “could still introduce significant risk”, adding that they do “not go far enough to protect patients”.
But the body representing pharmacy multiples, including Boots, told C+D that its pharmacies had already been providing weight loss drugs safely.
Read more: ‘It terrifies me’: Girl landed in A&E after buying Wegovy from Boots
The Company Chemists’ Association (CCA) said that its members “have been remotely providing weight loss medicines to patients for many years with a proven track record of safety”.
Prior the new guidance, the CCA said that it did “not see the need for any additional regulation”.
