Diabetes drugs run short as slimmers snap them up
◆ The current failure to ensure the availability of medication affects us all by putting pressure on services, says Christine Jardine
While attention is currently focused on how our governments handled the pandemic, there is another potential health crisis affecting millions but getting little spotlight. Imagine having a life-changing condition you have to manage 24/7, and being told the medicine you need might not be available for the next 18 months.
That is what is happening to people on a daily basis because of shortage of various drugs for a number of conditions. Take type 2 diabetes, something on which I led a debate in parliament this week after constituents came to me worried they couldn't get prescriptions filled.
It is a problem in itself but also an illustration of a much bigger issue for our health service. There are currently 4.6 million people in the UK with type 2, with millions more at risk. We know there is no cure, but we do know it can be put into remission by losing weight. But it can take more. The key can be effective medication.
I raised this issue last year with the UK Government after a constituent came to me concerned that their treatment and health would be impacted by a shortage of diabetes drugs. They are known as GLP-1 RAS (glucagon-like, peptide-1 receptor agonists) and include one of the most common drugs, semaglutide, and there is a supply problem.
In this case, the problem has been made worse by the fact that the same drugs are effective for weight loss. These shortages have been linked to the drugs’ non-medical use as a slimming aid. Some, like Ozempic, are being sold online for nearly £200, a 1,765 per cent increase on the NHS prescription cost.
Meanwhile, patients who should have been started on GLP-1S are facing delays or are being put on to less effective options. While the drug shortages are a problem which diabetics share with people with conditions like ADHD and others, it is also a contributory factor to the issue of growing costs and pressure on the NHS.
I believe we should be looking at how we prevent health problems in the first place – both in areas of social deprivation and in society generally. We also need to think about how the current failure to ensure the availability of medication is affecting us all by putting pressure on services. For those with diabetes that means living with a condition that has the power to affect them at any moment, disrupting what they are doing and altering their day-to-day life, despite having done everything they can, everything right to control it.
Now consider how the lack of a medication, that we have organisations responsible for providing, makes that situation worse. A couple of years ago, as part of a campaign by Diabetes UK, I tried to live life as if I had diabetes. I realised just how difficult it is, and that people living with diabetes deserve much better.
I know some people who have been left waiting since 2023. The situation is now so bad that a national patient safety alert has been issued by NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care. But for those closest to the problem, this is not just about ease of access.
It is about quality of life.