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The superintendent pharmacist of a Brighton community pharmacy has been suspended for three months after admitting to prescribing the weight loss drug Saxenda inappropriately, including to a patient who “regularly consumed sweets and cakes”.

Henrietta Maurice Adu received the suspension order following a three-day videolink hearing before the General Pharmaceutical Council’s fitness to practise committee. 

Ms Adu owns Burwash Pharmacy in Brighton, which during the relvant period operated a private prescribing service both in person and, more frequently, online.

The hearing focused in part on two patients to whom she prescribed Saxenda, Patient A (who received the drug from September 2019-April 2020) and Patient B (to whom Ms Adu prescribed it “in or around” December 2021). 

Concerns were raised by other health professionals, with a clinical pharmacist at a nearby medical centre telling the GPhC that in his view Ms Adu had “not thoroughly explored a range of medical issues” before prescribing Saxenda, presenting a potential patient safety issue. There is no evidence of patients coming to harm as a result of her prescribing. 

It was also proven during the hearing that Saxenda had been prescribed to Patient A despite  the patient regularly eating unhealthy foods like “sweets and cakes” and doing little exercise, which was against NICE guidance and should have been picked up by the pharmacist.

The clinical pharmacist referenced NICE guidelines which state that Saxenda “should be prescribed as part of a comprehensive weight loss programme” and should be monitored closely, including ordering blood tests where necessary. 

In the case of Patient A, Ms Adu admitted to having failed to obtain adequate health information before prescribing Saxenda and relying “principally” on an online questionnaire – but she denied the same allegations concerning Patient B as in this case she had carried out a video consultation to verify the questionnaire responses. 

The FTPC accepted her evidence and found the allegations proved with regard to Patient A but not Patient B. 

All other allegations were admitted by Ms Adu, including failing to attempt to access patients’ GP records and monitor their Saxenda use, to “adequately consider” the possibility of medication dependence or misuse” and failing to have “adequate insurance” in the USA and Canada when this was required.

She also admitted to failures in her role as a superintendent pharmacist, including not having appropriate SOPs in place, not monitoring the safety of the pharmacy’s service and not keeping appropriate records of her prescribing decisions. 

Ms Adu expressed remorse and told the FTPC she had been on a “journey” and that she had stopped prescribing Saxenda, which the committee accepted as a sign of remediation. 

She also explained how her new testosterone replacement therapy service has been designed to prevent similar issues arising in the future, although the committee noted she did not evidence this with documents such as SOPs so it could establish that these systemic issues would not recur. 

The FTPC imposed a three-month suspension order to reflect the seriousness of her past behaviour and told her to provide an updated reflective statement at her review hearing, along with SOPs and risk assessments for her testosterone replacement service and evidence of training in record keeping.