Weight loss pill for sale online with no medical questions

Concerns: Alli cuts the amount of fat the body absorbs and there are fears it could be used by people with eating disorders
Anna Davis @_annadavis12 April 2012

A weight loss drug licensed only for the seriously overweight can be bought online without medical checks, the Evening Standard can reveal.

The drug Alli went on the market this month under the condition that it could be sold only to adults with a Body Mass Index of 28 or more.

But the Standard has found it is available from Boots online pharmacy with no robust safety checks.

A spokeswoman for Alli said the drug firm GlaxoSmithKline would give Boots pharmacists extra training as a result of the investigation.

Susan Ringwood, chief executive of the eating disorder charity Beat, said: "We are very concerned that Alli is available online with no checks. We have contacted Boots to complain about this ourselves.

"We worked carefully with the manufacturers before the launch to come up with advice for pharmacists. We thought we had done everything we could to help those at risk of misusing the drug, but to know this is available without rudimentary checks is worrying."

Alli can be appealing to people with eating disorders because it stops the body from absorbing fat. Ms Ringwood said: "People with anorexia develop a phobia and dread of fat and worry they may be contaminated by it in some way. So obviously something that could rid their body of fat is very attractive.

"With bulimia, people are trying to control their thoughts and feelings by the way they control their food, a pill like this may help them feel in more control of their body."

About 90,000 people are thought to be having treatment for eating disorders in the UK.

Before Alli was released on 22 April, 6,000 pharmacists were trained to measure customers to prevent abuse of the drug.

But an Evening Standard reporter bought Alli from the Boots website by entering a false weight on the application form, giving a BMI of 28.8.

Boots sent an email saying: "Before your order is accepted it is subject to further validation checks and we will notify you of any issues." No extra checks were undertaken and the pills arrived four days later.

A pack of 42 capsules of Alli, which lasts two weeks, costs £32.95, and a pack of 84 costs £49.95. It is taken before every meal and works by stopping the body absorbing 25 per cent of the fat eaten.

The drug can help people lose 50 per cent more weight than they would by dieting alone but it has unpleasant side effects such as bowel problems.

Boots said: "We take our responsibilities very seriously. GSK provided training for Alli and our teams are complying with this. Each order for any medicine on Boots.com is reviewed. We turn away 10 per cent of those requesting Alli as they do not meet criteria.

"Unfortunately there will always be a few who are willing to act fraudulently to obtain medicines online and we do everything we can to prevent this from happening."

GlaxoSmithKline said: "It is the responsibility of the pharmacy to sell the product in line with the licence - this includes online sales. GSK is committed to further training with pharmacies found not to adhere to the licence."

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