The researchers analyzed the composition of online purchases of semaglutide, the popular medication often prescribed for diabetes or obesity.
The semaglutida (also known under the brands Wegovy u Ozempic) has become one of the most famous weight loss drugs of the world. It’s used in Europa y USA to treat the diabetes type 2 and obesityaccording to health authorities.
However, their promising results have caused a frenzy around these products, causing shortage and misuseincluding the sale of counterfeit versions of the drug on the Internet without a valid license.
Researchers from the University of California in San Diego (USA) and the University of Pécs (Hungary) have studied how these sales are carried out and that contain the products sold.
Illegal online pharmacies
Researchers noted in a new study published in the journal JAMA Network Open what more than 40% of online pharmacies that sold weight loss medications constituted illegal operations.
The researchers carried out tests in six of them after purchasing the products. Only half of them actually delivered the product, and all showed signs of being “unregistered or unlicensed.”
Health risks
“One sample had a high presence of endotoxins, which indicated a possible contaminationalthough no viable microorganisms were detected,” according to the study.
Endotoxins are components of the outer membrane of the cell envelope of bacteria. The active ingredient of the drugs, semaglutide, was present in the samples but “with considerably lower purity levels“, since the analyzes showed levels of between 7 and 14%, compared to the 99% announced.
According to the study, the amount of semaglutide in each sample exceeded between 29% and 39% the one indicated on the label. The researchers noted in their analysis that “US poison centers have reported a 1,500% increase in semaglutide-related calls“.
The World Health Organization (WHO) launched in June a alert about counterfeit products detected in Brazil, the United Kingdom and the United States in 2023, some of which contained undeclared insulin that can cause health complications.
“(The European Medicines Agency) is aware of reports of Counterfeit Ozempic circulating outside the legal supply chain dating back to October 2023,” the agency said in an email.
“In our communications to the public, we have warned about the Health risks associated with purchasing and using counterfeit products and we have flagged registered online pharmacies (which can be identified by the common EU logo),” the agency also said, adding that regulatory authorities and law enforcement were investigating counterfeit medicines.
“Buying prescription medications from unregulated and unlicensed sources without a prescription is risky and some websites may look like legitimate online pharmacies, but in reality They operate illegally and sell medications that can be dangerouseven fatal,” the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said in a statement provided to Euronews Health.
“If a medicine has unknown active ingredients, it might not have the desired effect, it might have a unexpected interaction with other medications a patient is taking or could cause dangerous side effects“added the agency, which highlighted that it had sent warning letters to internet pharmacies for illegal activities.
