Does Wegovy have to stay refrigerated — and what happens if it gets warm?

Does an unopened Wegovy pen have to stay in the fridge the whole time?

Yes. Unopened Wegovy pens must be stored in a refrigerator at 2°C to 8°C from the moment they arrive until you start using them. The cold chain begins with manufacture and (if your pharmacy handles things properly) continues right through to your door. At nume, pens are dispatched in temperature-appropriate packaging via DPD's next-working-day tracked service, so the journey from our GPhC-registered pharmacy to your fridge is as short as possible.

The critical thing to avoid is freezing. If a pen has been frozen (even briefly) the medicine can degrade in a way that isn't visible to the eye. You cannot tell by looking at it. The pen may appear completely normal but deliver a weakened or altered dose. If you suspect your pen has frozen, the safest course is not to use it; contact your prescriber or pharmacist straight away.

Direct sunlight and excessive heat cause similar problems. Leaving a pen on a sunny windowsill or in a hot car boot for an afternoon is enough to compromise it. The original carton provides some protection from light, so keep the pen in it even when it's in the fridge. If you're unsure whether Wegovy has to be refrigerated at every stage, tucking it in the fridge door rather than directly against a back wall where temperatures fluctuate is a simple habit that helps.

Can you take Wegovy out of the fridge for travel or convenience?

Once you've started using a pen (meaning you've removed it from the fridge and taken your first dose), it can be stored at room temperature (below 30°C) for up to six weeks. After that six-week period, it should be discarded, whether or not doses remain. This flexibility is genuinely useful for travel, commuting or simply not wanting to inject cold medicine.

What matters is the temperature ceiling. Below 30°C is the threshold. A bag left in a warm car, a bathroom shelf that heats up in summer, or a gym bag next to a sauna, these can push a pen beyond that limit quickly. A small insulated pouch is worth considering on hot days or longer journeys. The NHS semaglutide medicines page echoes this guidance and is a useful reference to bookmark alongside the leaflet that comes with your pen.

One practical note: some people count the six weeks from the date they first took the pen out of the fridge, not from the first injection. Those dates can differ by days if you took the pen out in advance to warm it up. If you want a clear answer to whether you have to refrigerate Wegovy before first use, the safest approach is to record the date you first removed it from the fridge and count from there. Our prescribers can confirm the right approach for your circumstances during a follow-up query.

What should you do if a Wegovy pen has been left out too long or exposed to heat?

The honest answer is: don't inject it. A pen that has been left at room temperature beyond six weeks, or exposed to temperatures above 30°C, should be treated as compromised. Using degraded medicine doesn't just risk a weaker effect, it risks injecting something the manufacturer can no longer guarantee is safe or stable.

If you think your pen was damaged in transit or arrived in poor condition, that's a separate issue worth raising with your pharmacy. At nume, we have a process for defective pen replacements, it's not something patients should have to navigate alone. Used pens and any pens being discarded should go into a sharps bin; a one-litre sharps container is the standard choice for most people on weekly injections at home.

More broadly, if you notice anything unusual about the liquid in the pen (particles, cloudiness, or discolouration) do not inject it. Wegovy solution should be clear and colourless or very pale yellow. Contact your prescriber or pharmacist if anything looks off. These aren't unlikely edge cases; they're the sorts of questions our clinical team handles regularly, and getting a straight answer is always better than guessing.

How does Wegovy's storage compare with the Wegovy tablet, and does it affect which suits you?

Wegovy is also now available as a once-daily tablet (oral semaglutide, approved by the MHRA in June 2026), and one of its practical advantages is that no refrigeration is needed at all. The tablets are stored at room temperature, which removes the fridge dependency entirely, and patients who want to understand whether they have to keep Wegovy refrigerated throughout their treatment will find the contrast with the tablet format particularly useful.

That said, the injection and the tablet aren't interchangeable choices based on storage alone. They have different dosing schedules, different trial evidence, and different considerations around how they're taken. The question of which is more suitable for you is a clinical one, and if you want to confirm specifically whether Wegovy needs to be refrigerated in your particular situation, our prescribers can advise during a consultation. If you're weighing up both options, the Wegovy overview covers the full picture, and our free consultation is the place to work through what fits your life. These are prescription medicines; a prescriber decides suitability, not a storage preference.