LONDON (Reuters) – Simple Online Pharmacy, a UK-based online pharmacy chain, will charge patients with private insurance or those paying out of their own pockets between 199 pounds and 299 pounds ($251-$377) for a month’s supply of Novo Nordisk’s weight-loss drug Wegovy.
It was the first indication how much the popular weekly injection would cost private patients in Britain after Novo announced it had launched Wegovy earlier on Monday.
It said it expected to have Wegovy in stock “within the next 24 hours”. More than 50,000 people have registered an interest in Wegovy on its website.
Saxenda, a daily injection which is Novo’s older weight-loss treatment already on the UK market and which is less effective than Wegovy, is also in short supply.
“Our research into other markets indicates Wegovy demand typically outpaces Saxenda somewhere between 3 and 6 times, so we expect to be inundated,” said Chief Executive & Co-Founder Addy Mohammed in the statement.
Simple is one of the main providers of weight-care medications in Britain, alongside Walgreens Boots Alliance and LloydsPharmacy.
($1 = 0.7920 pounds)
(Reporting by Maggie Fick, Editing by Louise Heavens)
