Georgie Aldous, 26, claims he was left suffering panic attacks and a rapid heartbeat after buying Mounjaro online – and believes rules surrounding the weight loss drug should be tightened
A man has admitted he ‘thought he was going to die’ after using the ‘King Kong’ of weight loss injections.
Georgie Aldous is calling on online pharmacies to carry out stricter checks when issuing prescriptions for weight-loss drugs – despite losing three-and-a-half stone. The 26-year-old from Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, spent nearly £1,000 on a private Mounjaro prescription after struggling with binge-eating and “yo-yoing” between diets, but claims the medication left him suffering panic attacks and a rapid heartbeat. It was announced earlier this month that the drug, which is also known as Tirzepatide, will soon be available to eligible patients on the NHS in England.
In March this year, Georgie placed his first order for Mounjaro with a legitimate UK-based online pharmacy, and the screening process required him to show his ID and submit a video of himself standing on weighing scales. He chose not to inform the provider of his binge-eating, and five hours after starting the application, his request was approved. But over the course of five months, he claimed he started to suffer with panic attacks and tachycardia, a rapid heartbeat that is out of proportion to age and level of activity.
He now claims he would rather have stayed at his previous weight than suffer from the side-effects. Georgie said: “I’d rather have the weight than feel the way the injections made me feel. I’ve never experienced such a feel of such emptiness since being on that. I’ve always had issues with food and everyone knows what Ozempic is because it is everywhere – on social media and with celebrities. I wish I’d never done it.”
Georgie, who weighed around 17 stone, continued taking the drug until August, losing 50lbs and dropping to 13 stone. The price of the injection fluctuated, with Georgie paying £198.99 in April for 5ml, £228.99 in May for 10ml and £219 for 12.5ml in July.
But he began to feel frail and said he would regularly skip breakfast, getting by on just a flat white and banana for lunch, then eating just 600 calories for dinner.
He called 111 after suffering a massive panic attack in August, and said he thought he was going to die. His heart rate was more than 140 beats per minute.
The following day he went to A&E at James Paget Hospital, and they said he was tachycardic. Georgie said he was shaking, crying and having heart palpitations, and visited A&E multiple times over the days that followed.
He now believes that the drug should be held back for only the most exceptional cases, and said: “I think it should be an extremely last resort to go on Mounjaro and people should treat it like that. It has left me with panic disorder and health anxiety. You should have to go through the NHS or speak to your doctor. I never would have done it if I’d known.
“People shouldn’t hate on themselves too much about weight as we’re only in one little chapter of our lives. Try calorie deficit or therapy before you inject yourself with something. You don’t want to end up in A&E or left feeling the way I do.”
A spokesman for Eli Lilly, the pharmaceutical company which makes Mounjaro, said: “Mounjaro should only be used when prescribed by a licensed healthcare professional and prescriptions should be fulfilled and supplied by reputable pharmacies and providers. Regulatory agencies conduct extensive independent assessments of the benefits and risks of every new medicine. Lilly is committed to continually monitoring, evaluating, and reporting safety data to ensure the latest information is available for regulators and prescribers.”