Wegovy refrigeration: what the official guidance actually says

What the Wegovy SmPC tells us about temperature limits

The Summary of Product Characteristics for Wegovy, available on the Medicines.org.uk eMC, is the authoritative reference for storage. It sets a refrigerated range of 2–8°C for unopened pens. Within that range, the active ingredient (semaglutide) remains stable for the duration of its shelf life.

Outside the fridge, the SmPC permits room-temperature storage up to a maximum of 30°C for a defined number of days per pen. That number is specific to the product; because different configurations of the Wegovy pen may carry slightly different instructions, the exact figure belongs in your leaflet, not quoted here as a universal rule. Checking the leaflet takes under a minute and is the single most reliable habit you can build.

What the guidance is unambiguous about: once a pen has been frozen (even accidentally, if it sat too close to the freezer compartment of a combined fridge-freezer) it cannot be used. Freezing disrupts the formulation in ways that are not visible to the naked eye, and if you want a full explanation of whether Wegovy requires refrigeration and why those conditions matter, our dedicated page sets this out clearly. The pen may look identical, but the medicine has changed. Discard it and contact your pharmacy or prescriber for a replacement.

For readers who travel frequently, the practical implications of these limits are covered in more depth on our Wegovy storage and travel page, which looks at how to manage pens on flights, in hotels, and in warm climates.

Fridge placement matters more than most people expect

A household fridge is rarely a uniform 2–8°C throughout. The door compartments, particularly the top shelf of the door, tend to run warmer and fluctuate more as the door opens and closes. The coldest zones are usually the middle shelves towards the back.

There is also the freezer boundary to consider. Semaglutide pens stored on the shelf directly above or adjacent to the freezer drawer can dip below 0°C during a cold cycle. A pen stored here and subjected to freezing is not safe to use, even if it thawed normally before your injection day.

The practical check: place your pens on a middle shelf, away from the door and away from the freezer wall. If you share a fridge, keep them in a small container to prevent them being moved or knocked against the back panel where coils run coldest. None of this requires a thermometer, though a basic fridge thermometer (widely available for a few pounds) gives you genuine confidence that your unit is holding the correct range — a useful investment if your fridge is older or runs noisily.

For a broader look at how semaglutide's storage requirements compare across different product forms, the semaglutide refrigeration overview sets out the differences clearly.

What happens if the cold chain is broken

The NHS's guidance on semaglutide, summarised on the NHS medicines page for semaglutide, advises patients to speak to a pharmacist if they are unsure whether a pen has been stored correctly. That advice is worth taking literally: if there is any doubt (a power cut that lasted several hours, a delivery that arrived warm, or a pen that was left out significantly longer than the permitted room-temperature window) do not use it and do not assume it is fine.

Degraded semaglutide will not necessarily look different. The solution may appear clear and colourless as usual. Reduced potency or unexpected changes to tolerability are possible consequences, and neither of those is easy to detect without clinical context. The stakes are low enough to resolve with one phone call to a pharmacist; they are high enough that skipping that call is a poor trade-off.

If your pen has arrived from an online pharmacy and you have questions about how it was transported, a GPhC-registered Wegovy service should be able to confirm the cold-chain arrangements used during dispatch. At nume, all pens travel in temperature-controlled packaging via tracked DPD delivery, dispatched the same working day once clinically approved.

Readers weighing up the overall cost of private semaglutide treatment (including what a legitimate, cold-chain-compliant service actually includes) will find a factual breakdown on our Wegovy price comparison page.

Disposal and when to contact your prescriber

A used or degraded pen should never go into household recycling or a general waste bin. Used needles require a sharps container; if you do not already have one, a 1-litre sharps bin is the appropriate size for most patients and can be collected by your local council's clinical waste service.

Reach out to your prescriber (not just a general helpline) in any of these situations: you are not sure a pen was stored correctly; you have noticed an unexpected change in how you are tolerating your dose; or the pen's appearance (cloudiness, visible particles, unusual colour) differs from your previous pens. A real prescriber can assess the situation in context. Our clinical team is available seven days a week for aftercare queries of exactly this kind.

Patients sometimes ask whether the storage requirements differ between semaglutide products. The short answer is: yes, and the differences matter. Our page covering Wegovy's specific refrigeration requirements addresses this directly, including how the pen format compares to other semaglutide presentations. If you are considering starting Wegovy and want to understand whether it suits your situation, check your eligibility with our prescribers, the consultation is free and reviewed the same day.