How to get Ozempic in the UK

Ozempic contains semaglutide. So does Wegovy. They are not the same product and they are not licensed for the same thing.

Ozempic is licensed to treat type 2 diabetes. Wegovy is licensed for weight management — now in two forms, a weekly injection and a daily tablet. Same active ingredient, different products, different doses, different licences, and a prescription for one is not a prescription for the other.

That matters practically rather than pedantically. If you want treatment for weight, there is a product licensed for exactly that, and it is a better answer than an off-label prescription of one that is not. A prescriber who writes Ozempic for weight loss is prescribing outside its licence, which is lawful in principle and carries more responsibility, more explanation and usually more hesitation than prescribing the licensed alternative.

Then this is straightforward, and it is the question the medicine exists to answer.

Ozempic is prescribed in the ordinary way: by your GP or diabetes team as part of managing your blood glucose, usually within a wider treatment plan rather than on its own. It is available on the NHS for that indication where it is clinically appropriate, which is a very different position from the weight-management medicines.

If you have diabetes and are also carrying weight you want to lose, say so — that is relevant clinical information and it legitimately bears on which diabetes treatment is chosen. It is a conversation to have with the person managing your diabetes rather than a reason to go elsewhere.

Then ask for the thing that is licensed for it, which gets you a better conversation and usually a faster one.

Wegovy is semaglutide licensed for weight management in adults with a BMI of 30 or above, or 27 to under 30 with at least one weight-related condition. It exists as a weekly injection escalated to 2.4 mg, with a higher 7.2 mg option added to the licence in 2026, and as a daily tablet escalated to 25 mg.

The route is the same as for any prescription-only medicine: a clinical assessment, review by a named prescriber, and supply from a registered pharmacy only if treatment is judged appropriate. Our page on getting Wegovy sets that out in full.

And the reason not to insist on Ozempic instead is not bureaucratic. Ozempic shortages have repeatedly left people with type 2 diabetes unable to get the medicine they depend on, and demand for it as a weight-loss product is part of why. Choosing the licensed alternative is both the better clinical route and the one that does not take someone else’s prescription.

The same checks apply to Ozempic as to anything else, and they take two minutes.

The pharmacy appears on the General Pharmaceutical Council register. It names its superintendent pharmacist. Its MHRA distance selling logo is a working link back to the regulator rather than an image. And it will not supply without an assessment.

One warning specific to this medicine: because demand outstripped supply for a long period, Ozempic is heavily represented among falsified medicines seized in Europe. Counterfeit pens have been found in the legitimate-looking market, not only on obviously illegal sites. The register check is the defence.