Written question WQ98273
- Asked by
- Janet Finch-SaundersConservative
- To be answered by
- Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
- Tabled
- Due
- Answered
- Time to answer
- 4 days
Question
Will the Cabinet Secretary provide an update on how they are working with health providers to ensure that Mounjaro is used by patients safely?
Answer
Answered by Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
The licensing and regulation of medicines in the UK is a reserved matter and is the responsibility of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). This includes assessing and ensuring the ongoing safety and effectiveness of all medicinal products.
Tirzepatide (Mounjaro®) is a prescription-only medicine, which can only be lawfully obtained in accordance with a prescription from a registered healthcare professional. Professionals prescribing and supplying these medicines are required to take steps to ensure prescriptions are clinically appropriate and they are used safely and effectively. This includes explaining and monitoring the potential adverse effects of any medicine they prescribe.
The All Wales Weight Management Pathway (Adult weight management pathway 2021 | GOV.WALES) sets out our approach to the development of weight management services for patients in Wales, consistent with National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance. Tirzepatide should only be prescribed through specialist services or by other suitably competent prescribers in the specific circumstances set out in Welsh Health Circular 2025/043.
People accessing tirzepatide should do so from reputable services and should ensure they obtain medicines only from registered pharmacies. Where medicines are obtained online, people should check the supplier is a pharmacy and it is participating in the General Pharmaceutical Council’s internet pharmacy logo scheme, which provides reassurance to people they are purchasing medicines from registered pharmacies which meet professional standards.