Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the regulation of sales of weight loss injections by online pharmacies.

When used appropriately, online prescribing provides a valuable route for patient access, taking pressure off general practices. We are concerned, however, about some online prescribing, including the prescribing of weight loss medicines by online businesses. These are prescription only medicines (POMs), licensed for use in the United Kingdom by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), and should be prescribed according to the terms of the MHRA’s marketing authorisation. Prescribing outside of these terms, known as off-label prescribing, should only take place when the prescriber doing so judges it to be in the best interest of the patient, on the basis of the available evidence.

Rules regarding the advertising and promotion of medicines in the UK are set out under Part 14 of the Human Medicines Regulations 2012. The MHRA works closely with other regulators to help ensure that the public is protected from the advertising of POMs. A joint enforcement operation is in place with the Advertising Standards Authority to take targeted action against weight-loss treatment providers who use social media to promote POMs. In England, online prescribing is regulated by the Care Quality Commission and the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC). The GPhC regulates the supply of medicines against prescriptions in pharmacies. Regulators are able to take action when a provider does not comply with the standards.