UK GLP-1 buyer's guide 2026: every private route, scored honestly

The UK private GLP-1 market is the most fragmented in Europe. Roughly 1.5 million people are on a paid prescription right now, 95 percent of them out of pocket because the NHS rarely covers weight loss. The supply is split across maybe a dozen mainstream telehealth brands, three or four supermarket-pharmacy operators, the Boots and Superdrug high-street chains, and a long tail of private clinics. There is no Hims-equivalent dominant winner. The pricing pages do not line up. The marketing language does.

This guide is the version we wish we had when we audited the market for our cohort-3 routing. Per-dose numbers in GBP. What our 11-signal rubric actually scored each provider on. Where each one fits.

What is actually being sold

There are three medications in mainstream UK private prescription circulation: tirzepatide (brand Mounjaro), semaglutide (brand Wegovy for weight loss, Ozempic for diabetes), and to a much smaller extent liraglutide (brand Saxenda). Tirzepatide became dominant in 2025 because the trial outcomes are better and the price-per-titrated-dose is competitive. Semaglutide is still common where supply or insurance routing favours it.

What you are paying for, on a private Rx, is some combination of:

1. The pen itself (the actual medication, sourced from authorised UK distribution) 2. The prescription decision (a GMC-registered prescriber reviews your details and approves) 3. Cold-chain shipping to your door (the pen has to stay between 2 and 8 degrees Celsius) 4. Some flavour of wraparound: a coach, an app, a community, or just an order portal

The variance in those four components is where the £100 to £900 monthly range comes from.

Per-dose pricing across the market, April 2026

UK GLP-1 is priced dose-by-dose. Most providers publish a ladder. We pulled the public pricing pages and normalised to a typical maintenance month at common doses.

| Provider | 2.5mg starter | 5mg | 7.5mg | 10mg | Notes | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | Asda Online Doctor | £119 | £159 | £179 | £229 | Cheapest mainstream; ZipHealth-powered | | iQDoctor | £149 | £179 | £199 | £249 | Lowest-priced 2.5mg in audit | | Pharmacy2U | £125 | £165 | £195 | £255 | Largest UK online pharmacy by Rx volume | | Boots Online Doctor | £149 | £189 | £229 | £279 | High-street trust + 2,200-store collection | | Numan | £149 | £179 | £229 | £339 | Per-dose ladder, men's-health verticalisation | | Voy | £159 | £189 | £239 | £329 | UK's #1 by user count, 100k+ members | | Juniper UK | £159 | £189 | £239 | £349 | Women-first programme, Eucalyptus-backed | | ZAVA | £165 | £199 | £249 | £329 | Hims-acquired June 2025 | | Simple Online Pharmacy | £119 | £155 | £185 | £245 | Clean GPhC profile, well-cited | | Second Nature | n/a | £165 | £215 | £285 | NICE-recommended programme, behaviour-change wraparound |

Numbers are accurate as of April 2026 and shift roughly quarterly when Eli Lilly adjusts its UK distribution prices. A few caveats. Some providers include dose escalation at no extra cost, others charge separately. Some require a "consultation fee" on the first month. Most charge an additional £30 to £50 for next-day cold-chain delivery; a few include it. The match email Panya sends names the exact effective number for the route we recommend.

What our 11-signal rubric scores them on

Our rubric is public. Eleven signals, each scored 0 to 100. Below is how we scored the UK leaders, with the signals that drove the scores.

Voy — 74/100. Strongest UK score in our audit. 100,000+ members, transparent per-dose ladder, clean Trustpilot history, fast prescription decisions. Lost points on refund posture (no money-back if you discontinue early) and a recent ASA upheld complaint over discount-code social posts. Routable for general UK telehealth match.

Numan — 72/100. $60 million raised, men's-health vertical that broadened into GLP-1. Per-dose pricing transparent. The men's-health framing skews their inbound but the medication and prescriber are the same as everyone else. Routable.

Juniper UK — 70/100. Women-first weight programme, 250,000 global users, Eucalyptus-backed (the Australian operator). Clean clinical positioning. Routable, particularly when the user signals they want a women-led programme rather than a generic Rx vendor.

Second Nature — 68/100. NICE-recommended digital weight programme. Behaviour-change moat is the differentiator: dietitian, coach, app. Higher monthly than pure Rx but the wraparound is real if you need accountability. Routable for users who want a programme, not just a prescription.

Boots Online Doctor — 67/100. Walgreens trust signal, 2,200-store collection footprint. Slower partnerships path corporately but the user experience is solid. Routable.

Asda Online Doctor — 66/100. Cited as UK's cheapest mainstream Mounjaro in April 2026 audits. White-labelled through ZipHealth. Routable for cost-conscious users.

Pharmacy2U — 65/100. UK's largest online pharmacy by Rx volume. Generalist platform; weight loss is one of many categories. Routable.

We did not include ZAVA in the rubric audit because the Hims acquisition (June 2025) and subsequent compounding pivot is still settling. We will revisit by Q3 2026.

Regulatory posture you should know about

The MHRA oversees prescription practice. Every provider above is required to use a GMC-registered prescriber and to source medication from MHRA-licensed UK distribution. None of the providers above are compounding GLP-1; the UK has effectively no compounded GLP-1 market because Eli Lilly's UK distribution is open enough that the price gap to compounding is too small to motivate it.

In February 2026, the ASA upheld complaints against Voy, ZAVA, MedExpress, and UK Meds Direct over social-media posts that featured discount codes for weight-loss medication. The ban specifically targets price-led promo language; the underlying prescription practice was not in question. Practical effect: most providers have toned down their marketing copy and you will see less "save 20 percent on your first month" framing across the board. Pricing itself did not change.

If a UK provider you are considering is not on the GOV.UK list of approved websites for medicinal weight-loss services, that is a meaningful red flag. Stay on the list.

How to pick

The decision tree we use when matching:

You want the cheapest mainstream brand at low dose. Asda Online Doctor or Simple Online Pharmacy. £119 to £155 covers the first three months at 2.5 to 5mg.

You want a name-brand UK telehealth experience. Voy or Numan. £150 to £230 for typical maintenance. Voy if you want the dominant platform, Numan if the men's-health framing fits you.

You want a women-led programme. Juniper UK. £160 to £240 for typical maintenance, with an app and women-specific clinical content.

You want a programme with coaching, not just a pen. Second Nature. £215 to £285 for the medication-included tier, with the dietitian and behaviour-change layer attached.

You want high-street pickup, not delivery. Boots Online Doctor. £150 to £230, collect at any of 2,200 stores.

You want the absolute lowest pen price for an existing maintenance dose. Asda Online Doctor or iQDoctor. The starter discount is real; the maintenance numbers are slightly above the floor.

What we will not tell you is which one is "best." There is no single best. The rubric is a tool to make tradeoffs explicit, not to anoint a winner. If you take the 2-minute quiz, Panya routes you to a specific provider for your dose, urgency, and budget, with the per-dose price and the trade-offs spelled out.

What we are not covering here

In-clinic private practice (Self London, One5 Health, Slimming Clinic, Roczen, Oviva). These are programme-led with bloodwork, dietitian, and in-person consultation. £400 to £900 per month range. Right answer for a user who explicitly wants medical oversight beyond the prescription, wrong answer if you want a clean pen-only flow. The 2-minute quiz routes here when the urgency and budget signals match.

NHS routes. The NHS prescribes Mounjaro for severe obesity (BMI 35+ with at least one comorbidity, or BMI 30+ with type 2 diabetes) through Tier 3 weight-management services. Wait times for Tier 3 are typically 6 to 18 months by region. If you qualify, this is the right answer; the private-pay market is not for everyone.

Sources we audited against

• GOV.UK March 2026 weight-loss provider list
• MHRA registration database
• GMC prescriber records (publicly searchable)
• Each provider's published pricing page (April 2026)
• ASA enforcement decisions Q1 2026
• NICE guidance TA1026 (Mounjaro for weight management)
• Cohort-3 outreach research, internal

Updated April 2026. We refresh quarterly. Last updated 2026-04-26.

If you spot a number that has shifted or a provider we have miscategorised, email partner@panya.health and we will check the source and update the page with a public changelog.