Boots is temporarily pausing home delivery of weight loss injections during the heatwave due to safety concerns, the pharmacy chain has said. The decision was made to keep the medication safe in transit amid temperatures set to exceed 30C across the country.
New testing by the Boots Online Doctor service found that cold chain packaging could not reliably keep weight loss injections within their required temperature range once outdoor temperatures exceeded 30C. Boots is advising patients to collect their medication from a local store instead.
Cold chain packaging limits
Weight loss injections such as Wegovy and Mounjaro must be kept below 8C to maintain quality and effectiveness. Boots said the gel-pack cold chain packaging used across the industry to transport medications requiring refrigeration had never been tested above 30C, despite the increasing frequency of UK heatwaves.
Eight tests sent out by Boots on June 25, coinciding with outdoor temperatures exceeding 30C the next day, found each one recorded temperatures above 8C on arrival. This indicated that standard packaging could not consistently keep the medication within its required temperature range throughout transit.
Temporary pause and future packaging
The chain said it had already temporarily paused home deliveries of the jabs on several occasions this summer as successive heatwaves hit the UK. New packaging was expected to be introduced in the coming weeks, enabling the medication to be sent out at temperatures of up to 35C.
Mandeep Kaur, pharmacist lead for the weight loss service at Boots Online Doctor, said: “Weight loss injections are sensitive to temperature. It’s important to store them as recommended, since exposure to temperatures outside the recommended range may affect the medicine’s quality and effectiveness.
“We’d always encourage patients to check their medication when it arrives and before administering them: look out for the solution appearing cloudy, discoloured or containing visible particles, or the packaging feeling warm to the touch on arrival. If in doubt, don’t use it and contact your provider.
“This is exactly why we’ve made the decision to temporarily pause deliveries during this summer’s heatwaves rather than risk sending out medication we couldn’t be confident had stayed within the recommended temperature range, which may impact its effectiveness and quality.
“Patient safety has to come first, even if that means a short-term inconvenience. It’s also worth knowing that not all weight loss injections have identical storage requirements – some brands allow a little more flexibility once they’re out of the fridge than some other brands.
“But the margin isn’t unlimited, and once the medication has been exposed to temperatures above 30C, it needs to be checked and replaced if it is not suitable for use, rather than relying on that flexibility to cover for a hot delivery.”
