The hack that could save you £3,700 on weight-loss jabs. Step by step, how to get the lowest price

The hack that could save you £3,700 on weight-loss jabs. Step by step, how to get the lowest price Weight-loss jabs such as Mounjaro and Wegovy have been hailed as a miracle drug by users and are booming in popularity. But the injections will have you shedding the pounds in more ways than one. While you’re watching the numbers fall on the scales, you may not notice those in your bank account plummeting too. Mounjaro and Wegovy are available on the NHS but you generally need to have a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 40 or more to get full funding. Those with a BMI of 30 or more can also get the prescription-only drugs – but they must buy it through a private practice or pharmacy. This comes with a high price tag: the average 18-month treatment plan costs £5,360 for Mounjaro and £3,555 for Wegovy. However, there are ways you can trim the bill. Here, Money Mail reveals how to get the best price for your jabs and save thousands of pounds as we shine a light on the sneaky tricks that pharmacies are using to get you to pay more. Save up to £3,700 Weight-loss jab users risk spending £3,700 more than they need to for a 18-month treatment plan if they don’t shop around, according to research by Robert Price, founder of weight-loss drug information website SlimrChat. Mr Price created the website last year after starting a course of Mounjaro and finding there was a lack of information about what he was taking and where he could buy it. Starting a course of these injections is a ‘major investment’, Mr Price says, as they require long-term use to be most effective. The average 18-month treatment plan for a user of weight-loss jabs costs £5,360 for Mounjaro and £3,555 for Wegovy (picture posed by model) When digging into the pricing of popular weight-loss drugs, he discovered that some pharmacies are charging thousands of pounds more than others, despite the product being the same. And to make matters worse, prices fluctuate wildly from month to month between providers, which means it is vital to compare stockists before starting your journey but also regularly during the course. Those who don’t risk spending thousands of pounds more than necessary. Mr Price says: ‘Competition is fierce because this is a valuable audience to have. So there are huge variances in price.’ The cheapest deal on a 76-week Mounjaro course was £4,656 from Dotor, an online UK pharmacy, while the same course was being sold at £8,069 by Treated UK, another online pharmacy, analysis of the market by Slimrchat found this week. That is a 53 per cent (£3,413) premium. Meanwhile for Wegovy, a generally cheaper drug, the lowest price was £2,418 from Medicine Market Place while the highest was £6,144 from AJ Hill Aesthetics – an extra £3,726. And this is only set to get worse over the coming years, Mr Price warns. Competition is likely to increase as Eli Lilly – the manufacturer of Mounjaro – is poised to release its new weight-loss pill to much fanfare by the end of the year. Do your homework The reason some pharmacies can charge such a premium is that costs are not clearly laid out for customers. Anyone who wants to buy a weight-loss jab will typically need to start a consultation with an online pharmacy, where you must supply key health information. A registered prescriber then reviews your answers. Once approved, some pharmacies may only give you a headline price for the first dose and might not tell you that fees increase as your dose goes up. This means that when looking at the cost for each dose – whether it’s £70 or £170 for 0.25mg of Wegovy – it can be tricky to work out the total price of the 18-month treatment. Mr Price, who noticed this, has developed a calculator that is free to use on his website, where users can work out the total cost of their weight-loss medication. The calculator tracks the price of Mounjaro doses that are being charged by more than 100 online pharmacies and clinics, refreshing its data twice a week. It allows you to see how much a year-long treatment and a 76-week course would cost you. Clinical trials measured the effectiveness of the weight-loss drugs after around 18 months of use. Or you can instead add your own custom timeline based on discussions with your healthcare provider. All you need to do is enter the doses you will be injecting for each four-week period, and the tool will tell you the cheapest option for your treatment based on current prices. Robert Price founded the weight-loss drug information website SlimrChat A typical plan involves starting on a low dose of the drugs before gradually increasing each week. Take someone who spends the first four weeks on 2.5mg of Mounjaro and then increases the dosage every four weeks by 2.5mg. They reach a 15mg dosage in weeks 21 to 24 and remain on this dosage until weeks 73 to 76. They will pay £4,655.54 over the 18-month plan if they choose the cheapest single provider, which this week is Dotor, the tool reveals. The calculation will be based on that day’s prices. In reality, the cost of the drugs change often so you should check the prices throughout your treatment plan. Remember your treatment plan can also change over time based on how much weight you lose and how you tolerate the medication. Users can also calculate the projected cost of switching supplier every month or two based on the cheapest option for the dose you need. By doing this, you can save another £12.10 in total in this example. Some may prefer to stick with the same supplier throughout the whole treatment even if that means paying slightly more. Mr Price says: ‘I didn’t want to switch all the time – I wanted consistency. It’s a lot of hassle, so it means you need to choose the right supplier at the outset.’ Switching can be an administrative burden as you’ll need to have another consultation with a pharmacist before you can buy the injections. You’ll typically need to provide evidence of your current dose and list any side effects, your treatment history, other medical conditions you have and your last injection date. All retailers included in the online calculator are UK pharmacies that operate online and are registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council, which ensures they meet rigorous standards. Users can click a button on the website if they want to see pharmacies with a high rating on review platform Trustpilot, more than 4.5 stars, for example. It also excludes providers that hide pricing behind ‘login’ walls on their website. Ignore introductory offers As weight loss injections are an incredibly lucrative market, pharmacies will try to entice you with tempting introductory deals. You may be promised 10 per cent off the cost of your first purchase or even as much as a £100 discount. It may sound tempting, but these deals could cost you thousands of pounds in the long run. For example, one pharmacy is currently offering £40 off the first order of Mounjaro but that doesn’t mean they have the best deal on the market. Mr Price says: ‘It looks great on paper. But those pharmacies tend to be the more expensive ones, so you would you would end up overpaying by more than £100 by the time you get to the end of your treatment.’ He adds that some pharmacies offer switching discounts or referral schemes where existing customers encourage friends and family to sign up in exchange for a reward. But you should consider the total cost of the plan rather than opt for upfront discounts that could cost you later on.