Fake Ozempic Is Surging

When Andy Morling heard about a revolutionary new weight-loss cure on the BBC last spring, he figured it might spark a shadier market for fakes.  His hunch was right. Almost a year later, the law-enforcement veteran who spent the last four decades helping to bring down drug gangs and child sexual abusers is leading the charge against criminals looking to profit from the very human desire to slim down.  Both organized crime and unscrupulous lone entrepreneurs are looking to capitalize on the weight-loss frenzy with concoctions that range from useless to potentially deadly. Their packaging mimics Novo Nordisk A/S’s Ozempic and Wegovy, the sister drugs that made the company the most valuable in Europe last year. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] “This is a brand new criminal threat for us,” Morling said, speaking from an office outside London that sits adjacent to a secure warehouse filled with thousands of seized medicines, including large sacks of fake Ozempic. “It was born essentially last spring.” Read More: Here’s What Americans Think of Weight Loss Drugs That’s when the Novo medicines became a social media phenomenon, fueled by Hollywood celebrity endorsements, even as supply shortages kept them out of reach for many, especially outside the US. Wegovy, the weight-loss successor to the diabetes drug Ozempic, was first introduced in the U.K. last September, but its maker restricts how much can be...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized bloomberg wire healthscienceclimate Source Type: news