Boots Pauses Home Delivery of Weight Loss Jabs in Heatwave
August 12, 2026
Boots has announced that it is temporarily pausing home delivery of weight loss injections during the heatwave due to safety concerns. The company said it had made the decision to keep the medication safe in transit amid temperatures exceeding 30C across the country. This followed new testing by the Boots Online Doctor service that found cold-chain packaging could not reliably keep weight loss injections within their required temperature range once outdoor temperatures exceeded 30C. It is advising patients to collect their medication from a local Boots store instead.
Weight loss injections such as Wegovy and Mounjaro must be kept below 8C to maintain their quality and effectiveness, but Boots said the gel-pack cold-chain packaging used across the industry to transport medications that require refrigeration had never been tested above 30C, despite the increasing frequency of UK heatwaves.
Eight tests sent out by Boots on 25th June, coinciding with outdoor temperatures exceeding 30C the next day, found that each one recorded temperatures above 8C on arrival, indicating that standard packaging could not consistently keep the medication within its required temperature range throughout transit.
Boots said it had already temporarily paused its home deliveries of the jabs on several occasions this summer as successive heatwaves hit the UK. It said new packaging was expected to be introduced in the coming weeks, enabling the medication to be sent out at temperatures of up to 35C.
Pharmacist Advises Checking Medication on Arrival
Boots Online Doctor advised the following:
- Weight loss injections are sensitive to temperature so must be stored as recommended, as exposure to temperatures outside the recommended range may affect the medicine’s quality and effectiveness.
- Patients to check their medication when it arrives and before administering -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.
- Patient safety has to come first, even if that means a short-term inconvenience.
