Dodgy weight reduction jabs being bought in pubs and chippies as prospects given warning
The investigation, published by the London Assembly health committee, said it had also found evidence of personal trainers offering clients boxes of jabs to help them shed the pounds.
The jabs are being sold on the black market(Image: Getty)
Dodgy fake weight loss jabs are being sold in Britain’s pubs and fish and chip shops on the quiet, a worrying new report has found.
An investigation has unearthed concerning findings of backstreet takeaways offering dodgy fat loss injections on the cheap.
The investigation, published by the London Assembly health committee, said it had also found evidence of personal trainers offering clients boxes of jabs to help them shed the pounds.
In a warning to Londoners, they acknowledged that while some of the products may be genuine, they are not legitimately prescribed and counterfeit or not they pose “serious risks to people’s health”.
It comes as the UK’s drugs regulator, alongside border control officials and the police have attempted to crack down on fake versions of the drugs flooding the market amid fears they could cause serious damage to people’s health.
Experts have warned that it may not even be weight loss medication in the jabs, saying people have “no idea” what they are injecting into their bodies, and urging people not to use medication unless it comes from a proper medical source.
The once-a-week slimming jabs have been dubbed ‘miracle’ injections.
But doctors have now warned how patients have suffered seizures and been left in life-threatening comas after taking fake versions of the jabs.
Medication sold in shops and pharmacies go through strict quality control to make sure they are safe and effective.
In some cases buying from an unregulated website or seller can be as bad as using a street drug dealer, experts have warned.
The London Assembly Health Committee heard evidence between September and November 2025 from pharmacy leaders, NHS hospital trusts and health officials.
In the final report, the committee wrote: “We heard concerning evidence about the rise of illicit markets and unlicensed sales of weight loss drugs.
“Some of these products may be genuine but are not legitimately prescribed, while others are completely counterfeit, posing serious risks to people’s health.
“People are acquiring them in locations such as beauty salons and gyms, and on social media, while we even heard about people buying them in pubs and fish and chip shops.
“We recommend greater regulation and enforcement in this space.
“This will require significant collaboration across regulators and agencies, as well as regular monitoring of illegal channels, advertising and social media.”
During one panel hearing, Sukhi Basra, vice chair of the National Pharmacy Association, also told the committee that her own patients have told her about “a facial therapist or a hairdresser or a personal trainer that has approached them and said would they like to have a skinny jab.”
She then told the panel of an example of a patient who had forwarded her “a photograph of a personal trainer showing her a box of fake slimming jabs and he was offering it to her openly.
They recommended the Government work more closely with the UK’s medicines and pharmacy regulators and establish a dedicated taskforce this year to crack down on the “illicit market for weight loss medicines”.
Reports of fake slimming jabs in the UK first emerged in August 2023.
Experts have repeatedly said many won’t even contain semaglutide or tirzepatide and are often just insulin pens which have been repackaged to look like the real thing, fooling customers.
When patients inject themselves, this insulin surge causes a rapid drop in blood sugar — which can potentially be fatal.
There have also been reports that Chinese laboratories can imitate legitimate weight loss medicines and sell them online for as little as £1.50 a vial, with dealers buying them in bulk and selling them on for profit.
In October, the MHRA revealed it had seized thousands of unlicensed fat jabs in what was thought to be the biggest seizure of fake weight-loss drugs conducted worldwide.
Officers from the medicine watchdog’s criminal enforcement unit and Northamptonshire Police stormed a production plant on the outskirts of Northampton during a two-day operation.
They uncovered more than 2,000 unlicensed tirzepatide injections – known by the brand name Mounjaro – and retatrutide pens, which is yet to be licensed anywhere in the world.
Last month, MHRA officers also seized 2,000 fake fat jabs from two addresses in Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire that were being used for the “manufacture and distribution” of the jabs.
Police in north Wales also raided beauty salons last month suspected of selling illegal retatrutide.
Three people were arrested, on suspicion of fraud by false representation.
The MHRA has urged any patients who experience an adverse reaction to a medication to report them via the MHRA’s Yellow Card scheme.
