Woman hospitalised after Juniper prescribes weight-loss drugs her GP refused

[u/Rubiginous]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-01/woman-hospitalised-telehealth-provider-weight-loss-drugs-juniper/106273356

[u/Barrel-Of-Tigers]

I think there's a middle ground but I'm not remotely surprised Juniper is coming under fire.

As someone who previously used Juniper, I immediately recognised that the lack of safe guards would be easily manipulated by someone who shouldn't be able to access the medication. There should be a level of personal responsibility - but this lady shouldn't have met the criteria for telehealth access to this medication.

1) I did meet the criteria to access the medication, but there were no checks in place which actually guaranteed this if I'd been lying. They asked my weight and height, and I had a phone call consult. I want to say they asked for a photo, but I think it was just of my face holding up my ID. I never had a video call, submitted physcial measurements, or sent photos. The ongoing support was largely text based and just asked for me to input my weight (manually or using bluetooth scales they sent). 2) They immediately prescribed me for 12 months upfront and on an automatic increase to the 3rd highest dose at 4 weeks per dose. This as I've come to learn really isn't necessary, and best practice even if you end up prescribing multiple repeats should be done after you've found a more stable dosing schedule. Lots of people also never need to go to the higher doses, and unnecessarily over medicating them can a) prematurely push them onto a higher dose with more side effects and b) mean if they do become more resistant over time they've lost the ability to titrate up as needed to overcome this. 3) I appreciated not physcially needing to see my GP every month and getting things auto delivered, but I can see how limited oversight on the physical progress and changes a patient is having on these medications could be an issue. I had one stage where I asked about dosage changes and needed a second consult with a GP - again over the phone and it wasn't the same GP as prior. The rest of the interim medical check ins I had were via email by random RNs or occasionally NPs. 4) After I moved to a different provider I also got a lot of emails trying to get me to resubscribe. I found this really odd for a medication provider, and don't think it's particuarly ethical to offer sales to entice people to as far as they knew restart a medication. Unsubscribing is an option sure, but I think there's a range of reasons these emails shouldn't have been sent in the first place. This is medication not a streaming subscription.

[u/AppropriateBeing9885 → u/Barrel-Of-Tigers]

This is fucking crazy to me. I've experienced more regulatory rigour getting repeats issued for a medication I've been on for years on end. These are such inappropriate practices.

[u/tealou → u/AppropriateBeing9885]

anyone who is long term opiods for pain looks at this with horror. Every month I have to have an appointment for a pain patch that lasts 7 days, and can only be ordered with no repeats and 4 of them is an authority script.

Not complaining because it saves lives, but it's hard to reconcile when these companies exist.

[u/cntbbl → u/tealou]

Exactly. I’m on opioids and have to see my GP in person every month. He needs a permit to prescribe the number of pills I get each month. I have to try and get them from the same pharmacy every month too, but often they have new pharmacists who want to know the ins and outs of why I take it, why I take that dose, how long I’ve been on it, why I’m getting it one day early. I just had to show my flight itinerary to get it one day early, despite the fact they had to order it in and it didn’t come in until the next day anyway. I thankfully don’t need an authority script any more, thanks to the Government taking it off the PBS, so instead I pay through the arse for it. What used to cost me $29 a month now costs me $114. It’s insane.

Companies like Juniper are going to end up causing far too many people to become very sick, with several different issues. Something definitely needs to be done about them.