Crime gangs in UK start making own branded weight-loss drugs

Organised crime gangs have begun manufacturing their own branded weight-loss drugs, designed to look like legitimate medicines, in what authorities warn is a significant threat.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said the trend had only just emerged, leading them to conduct the largest single seizure of trafficked weight-loss drugs ever recorded by any global law enforcement agency.

Andy Morling, the head of the MHRA’s criminal enforcement unit, said that in the last few months it had seen a new model of production, “where criminals are putting investment into designing their own packaging and branding … and selling it purporting to be a genuine product”.

He added: “That is an unusual model. [What they seized] looked like genuine medicines, but are entirely unlicensed and illegal to sell in the UK. The most recent model, and the level of investment to do packaging and production facilities to sell on an industrial scale – that is undoubtedly organised crime. That is why we are working to eliminate that model before it takes a grip.”

Morling said a product “that sophisticated … is a significant concern” for his unit.

Morling said that there was a “blurring of line in what is considered medicine and another cosmetic treatment available these days”. He said that most customers thought what they were buying in the syringes was a cosmetic treatment.

Morling added: “Some of the beauty parlours are selling them in this setting not realising that they are selling medicine that could end up giving them a custodial sentence … In both customer and seller there is a lack of awareness.”

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Source: The Guardian, 11 November 2025