Your GLP-1 arrived warm. Here is what actually happens next.
GLP-1 medicines ship refrigerated and must not freeze. Complaints about warm arrivals cluster in summer and on routes with weekend depot time, and most programmes leave the judgement call to the patient — which is the wrong place for it.
| Step | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Do not inject it | Potency after a temperature excursion is not something you can assess by looking at a vial. |
| Photograph the packaging, coolant pack and vial before opening further | It is the only evidence you will have, and it disappears the moment you unpack. |
| Note the delivery time and where the parcel sat | A porch in July and a cold hallway are different excursions. |
| Contact the pharmacy, not only the telehealth platform | The pharmacy holds the stability data and dispenses the replacement. |
| Ask for a documented stability assessment | A good operation will tell you whether the excursion was within tolerance and why. |
| Ask who pays for the replacement | This should have been answered before you enrolled. |
Why summer is different
The failure is usually logistical rather than pharmaceutical: a Friday dispatch, a hot delivery vehicle, a parcel left at a workplace front desk over a weekend. None of that appears in a price comparison, and it is a large share of what people actually complain about.
The question to ask before you enrol
What happens if a shipment arrives warm, and who pays for the replacement? Ask it in writing. The programmes that answer specifically — naming a stability process and a replacement policy — are rarely the ones patients later write about.
A programme that has no answer is telling you that the risk sits with you, which is worth knowing while you still have a choice.
What we cannot tell you
Whether a specific vial is still potent. That belongs to the dispensing pharmacy, which holds the stability data for its own formulation. Our role is to say what to preserve, who to ask, and what a reasonable answer sounds like.