UK clinics told to stop prescribing antidiabetes drugs for weight loss, after shortages

The UK government has urged healthcare providers to stop prescribing appetite suppressant drugs for weight loss because current shortages were creating “serious clinical implications” for patients with type 2 diabetes.

In a national patient safety alert issued on 18 July,1 the Department of Health and Social Care for England and the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency said there were “very limited, intermittent supplies” of all glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists because of the rise in demand for the drugs to …

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