Severely anorexic woman 'could have died' after one of UK’s biggest online pharmacies sold her weight-loss jabs
The woman's mother, Debbie, was horrified and is now calling for greater regulation across the sector
The mother of a severely anorexic woman has told LBC her daughter “could have died” after one of the UK’s biggest online pharmacies allowed her to buy weight-loss jabs.
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Despite weighing less than six stone (38kg), Caitlin, whose name we have changed to protect her identity, was able to purchase a monthly subscription of the appetite suppressant Wegovy from the digital health provider, Numan.
Her horrified mother, Debbie, has called for greater regulation across the sector, including face-to-face checks on all prescriptions, after Caitlin was able to use an AI-generated image to prove her identity and need for the jab.
The company’s founder and CEO, Sokratis Papafloratos, has apologised directly to Debbie for the sale of the medication and pledged to introduce a series of extra verification tools to avoid a repeat of her case.
Caitlin was diagnosed with anorexia more than a decade ago, when she was still a teenager.
She has been sectioned under the Mental Health Act and, when she was last hospitalised, clinicians told Debbie that her daughter was at risk of sudden death.
Debbie only found her daughter’s supply of the jabs by chance, and opened up to LBC about how “powerless” it made her feel.
“The first thing I do every morning is go into my daughter’s room to see if she is still alive — that is how I begin every single day.
“I have to regularly check her room for things like laxatives. Hidden in one of her drawers were two boxes of Wegovy. One was empty… one of them still had needles still in it.
“You just feel so desperate. I carry an agony every day with worries about her. And then when you're fighting things beyond her own illness and beyond the walls of our family home… You feel so powerless [and] it's like putting out fires.
“As a mother, when you see things like that, your heart just collapses because you're fighting so much.”
When Debbie uncovered her daughter’s supply, she saw one of the boxes that the drug had been provided by Numan, a digital health provider which has served 650,000 patients with treatments for erectile dysfunction, testosterone deficiency and obesity.
Alarmingly, when she contacted their customer services team, she was informed that she was unable to cancel the prescription on her daughter’s behalf owing to General Data Protection Regulation — in spite of her explanation of Caitlin’s condition and the very real risk to her life.
It was only when LBC contacted the company about her case that the decision was made to stop her order. Numan conceded that it should have acted upon learning of Caitlin’s situation, and has promised to implement additional comprehensive training to help its staff identify when to escalate safeguarding concerns.
Debbie’s decision to speak out about the case is motivated by a desire to protect her daughter and prevent other families in the same position experiencing similar distress.
“I feel frightened that my daughter could die if she gets hold of any more — but really, she could die and thousands of other people's children could die.
“I have been told by every practitioner that’s worked with her that she is at serious risk of death.
“You do get moments, as a mum, when you let those thoughts become really dark. I have replayed conversations in my head where I call my dad and say ‘we lost her’, or I go through my speech for her funeral, and I know the last line of that would be ‘I’m so sorry we couldn’t save you.’”
Numan was founded in 2018 and, according to the company’s own projections, its annual revenue is set to reach £170m this year — a 150% increase on 2024’s figures.
Its growth has been fuelled by sales of the jab. In a recent interview, Mr Papafloratos disclosed that an “explosion in demand” meant weight loss treatments now represented the majority of its revenue.
However, Caitlin’s case exposed shortfalls in its safeguarding procedures.
She was able to use an image stored on her computer as evidence of her current weight. The image was created through the use of AI software and went undetected by the provider.
As a result, Numan’s patients will have to take photos in real time when putting together their application. The company has also pledged to increase the proportion of patients who will have to be verified through a video call.
In January, the General Pharmaceutical Council, which regulates companies such as Numan, updated its guidance on weight-loss jabs to ensure they do not end up in the wrong hands.
The charity BEAT estimates that at least 1.25 million people in the UK are currently living with eating disorders.
Their spokesperson, Tom Quinn, told LBC that in-person checks are required to ensure people with anorexia and other conditions such as bulimia are not receiving such medication:
“People with eating disorders like anorexia often feel compelled to lose weight however they can, and so these kinds of drugs are incredibly attractive for people who are in the grip of this really serious illness.
“We need someone to be face to face, to actually check whether the person's, for example, BMI is what they say it is. But actually, even that isn't sufficient because people may be struggling, for example, with an eating disorder without yet having lost weight.
“That's why we think, as well as a face to face consultation, there needs to be proper mental health screening in place to check that someone doesn't have a serious eating disorder.
Meanwhile, Lib Dem MP Wera Hobhouse, who chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Eating Disorders, suggested that the lack of checks around the sale of the jabs online is "deeply concerning and very reckless".
In response to Caitlin’s story, Numan’s CEO, Sokratis Papafloratos, told LBC: “I have been in private contact with the family to apologise unreservedly for the distress caused. I have also reassured them we have taken the necessary action to ensure their daughter never receives weight loss medication from us again.
“In response to this incident, we have implemented additional staff training to ensure safeguarding protocols are followed, and conducted a full review of our verification processes.
“We are expanding our safeguarding leadership team, improving verification rigour through a combination of live-photo, video consultation and gaining NHS record access. We will also adopt new technology to ensure we can more rapidly evolve against the changing landscape - including developments in AI. Patient safety is our number one priority.”