United States: A new study shows that most of the online drug stores that sell Weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy containing semaglutide are counterfeit, as reported by The Hills.
Risks of Unregulated Online Pharmacies
Research conducted by the team and published on Friday in the JAMA Network Open revealed that when the investigators attempted to search the internet with the goal of locating “websites advertising semaglutide without a prescription” in the summer of the previous year, 42. Also, the study revealed that 27 percent of the actual online pharmacies that were identified in the search “were part of illegal pharmacy activities. ”
“This qualitative study found that semaglutide products are actively being sold without prescription by illegal online pharmacies, with vendors shipping unregistered and falsified products,” the study reads. “Two websites evaluated were sent [Food and Drug Administration (FDA)] warning letters for unlawful sale of unapproved and misbranded semaglutide.”
Fake and Unregistered Products
Tim Mackey, another author of the report and a senior professor at the University of California at San Diego, stated that those customers who are purchasing these anti-obesity meds online are exposed to “serious consumer risks” of receiving not only what is fake and ineffective but a dangerous substance as well.
The findings are in tandem with previous notices by the WHO, which in June 2021 noted that fake copies of semaglutide were found and available in various countries.
WHO issued a medical product alert in June to inform the public about counterfeit semaglutide, a diabetes drug sold in various countries.
Global Concerns and WHO Alerts
“WHO advises healthcare professionals, regulatory authorities and the public [to] be aware of these falsified batches of medicines,” Dr. Yukiko Nakatani, WHO assistant director-general for Access to Medicines and Health Products, said in a statement. “We call on stakeholders to stop any usage of suspicious medicines and report to relevant authorities.”
Producers have not been able to meet the market requirements for these anti-obesity drugs that go for as much as $1,300 per month, the study revealed. For this reason, more people are using the internet to search for medicine in online pharmacy shops, a fact that has led to a surge in “knockoff” products, according to the study.
Mackey further stated that the increase in potentially illegitimate Internet purchases could be attributed to insurance plans that fail to reimburse for injections or patients whose doctors cannot prescribe the substance. The study outlined that Medicare also will not pay for the medicine when it is prescribed for losing weight.
Mackey and his colleagues, therefore, procured six samples of semaglutide from six different online pharmacies. In their survey, they observed that at least two of the pharmacies had previously been served alarming letters from the FDA of the United States for engaging in the unlawful sale of misbranded semaglutide.
Testing Reveals Overdose Risks
The drugs bought online also had up to 39% more semaglutide than stated on the medicine label, as established by the study. Depending on the dose taken, an overdose could cause vomiting and low blood sugar levels, which will make people sick, according to the FDA, as reported by The Hills.
In June, pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly indicated that it had filed several legal actions against med-spas, wellness centers, and other firms that were using products similar to the company’s weight loss product.