Crime gangs in UK start making own branded weight-loss drugs | Health
Organized crime gangs have begun producing their own brand of weight-loss drugs designed to resemble legal drugs, and authorities have warned this is a significant threat.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said the trend was just emerging and had led to the largest weight loss drug trafficking seizure ever recorded by any global law enforcement agency.
Andy Morling, head of the MHRA’s corrections unit, said in the last few months they had seen a new production model “where criminals are investing in designing their own packaging and branding and selling it by making it look like a real product”.
He added: “This is an unusual model. [What they seized] It was similar to the original drugs but was completely unlicensed and illegal to sell in the UK. The investment and level of investment required to sell the latest model, packaging and production facilities on an industrial scale is undoubtedly organized crime. That’s why we’re working to eliminate this model before it becomes more widespread.”
Morling said that “such a complex product was a significant concern for his unit”.
Last month the MHRA carried out its first raid on an illegal weight loss pill factory in Northampton. Tens of thousands of empty slimming pens, raw chemicals and more than 2 thousand unlicensed retatrutide and tirzepatide pens were seized to be sent to customers.
Morling said there were a “significant number” of criminal investigations “on their books” but “not all of them were treated as investigations”. “We are taking a proportionate approach to the threat posed… In all cases, the priority is public safety by removing products from the market.”
The MHRA said the new production model “gives customers a false sense of security into thinking they are purchasing an original product”. The regulator is analyzing the products seized in Northampton but said it would be “wrong to speculate” about what they contained.
Morling said there is a “blurring of the lines between medication and another cosmetic treatment available these days.” He said most customers think what they’re purchasing with syringes is a cosmetic treatment.
Morling added: “It is in this environment that some salons sell drugs that could land them with imprisonment, without realizing that they are selling them… There is a lack of awareness on the part of both the customer and the seller.”
The MHRA said people see products marketed on social media but also learn about them through word of mouth and visiting local beauty salons.
Morling said there have been several iterations of how the treatments are produced, starting with fake versions of the Mounjaro and Wegovy brands in the spring of 2023.
“Essentially, these were insulin pens with insulin labels removed… The second model we saw in early 2024 was raw active ingredients in powder form for mixing at home and injecting with a syringe, or pre-filled generic syringes,” he said.
“The fact that we now have a third model [of production] … we are almost trying to compete with original branded products – this is new… This is still new and something we need to examine – we have never seen this level of investment and sophistication before… This is global organized crime.”
He added: “They looked like real drugs but their sale in the UK is completely unlicensed and illegal.”
