Crime gangs flooding Britain with faux weight-loss jabs and promoting them in gyms
Thousands of scam weight-loss products have been seized by officers from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency
Criminals are flooding Britain with fake weight-loss jabs, health chiefs have warned.
The crooks are flogging the bogus injections in gyms, beauty salons and on social media. And thousands of scam weight-loss products have been seized by officers from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.
A letter, signed by the UK bosses of pharmacy firms Eli Lilly, Pfizer and Theramex, warned: “We are deeply concerned about the huge rise in illegitimate and sometimes criminal supply networks that use social-media posts, online forums and unlawful websites claiming to sell prescription-only medicines to unwary patients. By buying medicine from social media, you are rolling the dice with your health.”
Weight-loss drugs must only be prescribed by healthcare professionals under UK law. The knock-off jabs are being sold by gangs for much less than a real one, which can cost £95 to £250.
And some drug kingpins in London have menus of weight-loss boosters next to Class-A gear such as cocaine.
The letter, also signed by the Patients Association, added: “Medicines purchased on social media have none of these safety controls. It is not possible to know if it is counterfeit (fake) or legitimate medicine being sold illicitly.
“It may contain the wrong ingredients, contain too much, too little or no active ingredient, or contain other harmful ingredients.”
It comes after the MHRA raided a warehouse in Northampton, East Mids, and seized thousands of weight-loss autoinjectors in October. The street value of the items was over £250,000.
Leyla Hannbeck, chief executive of the Independent Pharmacies Association, said: “It is deeply disturbing to see criminal gangs flooding the UK with illicit weight-loss jabs and the very real harm this is causing. Our members are regularly treating patients with complications after receiving fake or unregulated weight-loss jabs, sachets or tablets bought in gyms, beauty salons, online via dodgy websites and even on social media from individuals with no medical training.
“People accessing weight-loss medicines this way simply do not know what they are taking or injecting, the dose they are being given or whether the product has been stored safely. The risks are significant.”
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