The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) today (October 24) revealed that it has “dismantled a major illicit manufacturing facility” that was “making and distributing unlicensed weight loss jabs” that were “potentially deadly”.
During a two-day raid on a warehouse in Northampton, MHRA officers and local police discovered “more than 2,000 unlicensed retatrutide and tirzepatide pens” that were “awaiting dispatch to customers”, it said.
Read more: Weight loss: Illegal retatrutide pharmacy sales ‘being looked at’
Officers also seized “tens of thousands of empty weight loss pens ready to be filled”, along with “raw chemical ingredients” and “large amounts of sophisticated packaging and manufacturing equipment”, it added.
Around £20,000 in cash “suspected to be linked to medicines trafficking” was also found at the warehouse, the agency said.
The “street value” of just the “finished weight loss products alone” is estimated to be “more than a quarter of a million pounds”, it added.
“Largest single seizure”
According to the MHRA, the operation revealed “the first illicit production facility for weight loss medicine discovered in the UK”.
And it is believed to be the “largest single seizure of trafficked weight loss medicines ever recorded by a law enforcement agency worldwide”, it said.
Health secretary Wes Streeting said that the raid was a “victory” against “the shameless criminals who are putting lives at risk by peddling dangerous and illegal weight loss jabs to make a quick buck”.
Read more: MHRA seizures of weight loss jabs rise 163% in three months
“Don’t line the pockets of criminals who don’t care about your health,” he said, adding that these unregulated products pose “a major risk to unwitting customers”.
Streeting also urged the public “to only purchase and use [weight loss jabs] with the approval and oversight of medics and pharmacists”.
And MHRA criminal enforcement unit head Andy Morling highlighted that “this seizure shows the lengths these criminals will go to for profit”, adding that it is a “landmark result for the MHRA and a major blow to the illegal trade”.
Read more: MHRA crack-down seized £40m in illegally traded drugs last year
“People should be extremely cautious when buying medicines online,” he urged, stressing that “prescription medicines should only be obtained from a registered pharmacy against a prescription issued by a healthcare professional”.
It comes after the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) revealed earlier this month that reports of patients buying retatrutide from pharmacies are under investigation.
And C+D exclusively revealed last month that the number of weight loss injection pens seized by the MHRA rose by a staggering 163% in the space of just three months between June and August.
