What Treatment Costs

Three things, and they are worth separating because providers bundle them differently and a single headline figure hides which of them you are getting.

The assessment. A clinical questionnaire, identity and measurement verification, and independent review by a named prescriber who decides whether treatment is appropriate. This is the part that can end in no, and a service that charges nothing for it is usually one that has decided the answer in advance.

The medicine, dispensed by a registered pharmacy against that prescription. Its cost depends on the medicine, the dose you reach, and what the pharmacy pays for it — which is why a figure quoted before anyone has assessed you is a figure about marketing rather than about your treatment.

The follow-up. Scheduled reviews to manage dose increases and side effects, the formal review your licence requires, and the maintenance phase afterwards. A provider that charges only for the first two has sold you the start of a treatment rather than the treatment.

Because advertising a prescription-only medicine to the public is prohibited, and a price beside a brand name is advertising. That rule is not a technicality invented by cautious lawyers: it exists in Article 88(1) of Directive 2001/83/EC and in regulation 280 of the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 in the UK, in §10(1) of the Heilmittelwerbegesetz in Germany, and in Article L5122-6 of the Code de la santé publique in France.

So you will find sites in this sector showing "from £149 a month" beside Mounjaro. Whether that is lawful promotion is a question for the people who publish it. What we can tell you is that it is a decision they made, not a standard everyone meets, and that the price you are shown before an assessment is not a price anyone has yet established you should be paying.

What we will tell you, in full, is the cost of everything that is not the medicine. That is the part you can compare between providers before you commit to any of them, and it is the part that tells you whether a service intends to look after you or to dispense to you.

A headline monthly figure is close to meaningless on its own. These are the questions that change what you actually pay over a year.

Is the assessment included, and what happens to that fee if you are declined? Is the first consultation a real clinical review or a form? Are follow-up reviews included or charged each time? Does the price change as your dose increases, which it will, because every one of these treatments escalates? Is there a charge to pause, or to restart after a break? And what happens at the formal review point your licence sets — six months for Wegovy, six months after reaching the highest tolerated dose for Mounjaro, twelve weeks on 3.0 mg for Saxenda?

A provider that cannot answer those in writing before you pay is telling you how the rest of it will go.

Price differences between licensed treatments are real and sometimes large. Generic liraglutide is licensed for weight management in the UK and costs a fraction of the branded injections; oral tablets price differently again from pens. Those are legitimate conversations to have with a prescriber, and cost is a proper part of a treatment decision rather than something to be embarrassed about.

What is never a saving is the unlicensed route. A vial bought from a website with no assessment has unverified identity, unverified strength and unverified sterility, and the money saved buys a product nobody can tell you the contents of. Our page on buying safely sets out how to check that a pharmacy is registered, in each of the markets we serve.

Say so during the assessment. A prescriber can only weigh cost into a decision if they know it matters, and there is usually more than one appropriate option at different price points. Being asked to choose between treatment and something else you need is a clinical fact about your situation, not a confession.

It is also worth knowing what is free. In the UK, weight management services exist on the NHS and your GP can refer you, though access is restricted and waiting lists are long. We will tell you when that is the better route for you even though it is not the route that pays us.