Crime gangs making fake branded weight loss jabs, MHRA warns

Organised crime gangs are making branded weight-loss jabs that mimic legitimate medicines, the UK medicines regulator has warned.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said the trend emerged in recent months, prompting what it called the largest single seizure of trafficked weight-loss drugs ever recorded by any global law enforcement agency.

Andy Morling, head of the MHRA’s criminal enforcement unit, said criminals were now investing in designing their own packaging and branding to create products that appear genuine but are entirely unlicensed and illegal to sell in the UK.

He said: “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.”

He described products “that sophisticated” as “a significant concern” for his unit.

Last month the MHRA conducted its first raid on an illegal weight-loss drug factory in Northampton, seizing tens of thousands of empty weight-loss pens ready to be filled, raw chemical ingredients, and more than 2,000 unlicensed retatrutide and tirzepatide pens awaiting distribution to customers.

Tirzepatide is the active ingredient in the branded medicine Mounjaro, while retatrutide is an experimental drug still undergoing clinical trials.

The regulatory authority is analysing the seized products but said it would be “wrong to speculate” about their contents.

The new production model “gives customers a false sense of security in thinking they are buying a genuine product”, the MHRA said.

Morling outlined three distinct phases in the evolution of illegal weight-loss drug production. The first iteration appeared in spring 2023 with counterfeit versions of branded products Mounjaro and Wegovy.

“They were in fact insulin pens that had the insulin labels removed,” he explained.

The second model emerged in early 2024, involving raw active ingredients “either in powder form for mixing and syringe injecting at home or pre-filled generic syringes”.

The current third model represents a significant escalation in criminal sophistication, Morling said.

He added: “The fact we now have a third model [of production] … almost trying to compete with genuine branded product – that is new.

“That is box-fresh and something we are having to look at – we have not seen that level of investment and sophistication before.”

The MHRA said it has a “significant number” of criminal investigations underway but does not “treat them all as prosecutions”.

Morling said: “We take a proportionate approach to the threat posed.

“The priority in every case is public safety by removing products from the market.”

Many customers mistakenly believe they are purchasing cosmetic treatments rather than medicines, creating what Morling described as a “blurring of line in what is considered medicine and another cosmetic treatment available these days”.

He warned that beauty parlours selling these products may not realise they are distributing medicines, which could result in custodial sentences.

“In both customer and seller there is a lack of awareness,” he said.

The MHRA said people were discovering these products through social media marketing, word of mouth, and visits to local beauty salons.

Morling added: “They looked like genuine medicines but they are entirely unlicensed and illegal to sell in the UK.”