Warning as patients hospitalised after taking fake Ozempic weight-loss drug
People have been hospitalised after taking a fake version of the weight-loss control jab Ozempic, with 369 drugs seized by the UK’s medicines safety regulator.
The fake jabs, obtained without prescription through black market suppliers, were seized by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency.
Ozempic, the brand name for semaglutide, and demand for the medicine has contributed to shortages in the product, which is also used for people with type 2 diabetes.
The watchdog said a low number of patients had been hospitalised and reported serious side effects, including hypoglycaemic shock. Others ended up in a coma, which indicates the pens may have contained insulin rather than semaglutide.
It has urged the public not to buy drugs without a prescription and warned buying prescription-only medicines online “poses a direct danger to health”.
Source: The Independent, 29 October 2023