The first Wegovy weight-loss tablets have begun arriving via home delivery and in stores, with retailers boasting of huge demand for the new GLP-1 treatment.
The UK’s first weight-loss pill launched on Boots Online Doctor on Monday, with customers able to click & collect in store the same day. Thousands of patients also received their first deliveries of the tablets on Monday, according to Simple Online Pharmacy.
Both retailers said they had received thousands of pre-orders, many from people trying weigh-loss treatment for the first time, after the pills received UK regulatory approval in June.
Recent research from Worldpanel showed weight-loss jabs wiped £780m from annual UK grocery spend in the year to the end of February, as the rate of households with at least one user surged from 2.3% in 2024 to 6.3% in 2026. The availability of a needle-free alternative is widely expected to further boost demand for the drugs.
Boots said thousands of people had completed consultations to be among the first to receive the pills, and nearly two-thirds of them were accessing weight-loss drugs for the first time from the retailer. The treatment starts at £79 for new Boots customers taking the lowest available dose, or £99 for existing customers. Wegovy jabs are available from Boots starting from £79.97 a month without a discount for new customers.
Simple Online Pharmacy said more than 60,000 people had joined its waiting list for the pills, and over 10,000 had been approved and prescribed the medication for dispatch. The online chemist was taking pre-orders starting from £99 a month with a £30 introductory discount, again making the pills more expensive than the jabs, which are listed from £99 a month without an introductory discount.
“The Wegovy pill is a major development because it gives patients another way to access semaglutide without self-injecting,” said Simple Online Pharmacy chief clinical officer Abdal Alvi.
Boots chief healthcare officer Jamie Kerruish said: “The introduction of the new oral Wegovy pill is an important addition to our weight-loss service. It forms part of our continued support for weight management through both in-store support, including our new dedicated weight-loss journey support zones, and online through the wealth of resources available on Boots Online Doctor.”
Superdrug yesterday highlighted a 300% increase in demand for its weight-loss service in the first half of 2025 as it reported a 5.2% increase in sales for the full year.
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