The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has issued a warning following the publication of a report revealing that cosmetic procedures – including filler and fat dissolving injections – are being administered in “pop up shops on high streets, cubicles in public toilets and hotel rooms”.
Published today (June 18) by the Chartered Trading Standards Institue (CTSI), the report called for “urgent regulation to clamp down on providers of aesthetic procedures such as fat injections, Brazilian Butt Lifts, botox and fillers”.
“These are deeply alarming findings,” the NPA said. “We’re urging people to avoid using unlicensed treatments”.
Read more: ‘Unregulated’ fat dissolver being sold in pharmacies, GPhC warns
The CTSI also stressed that with the “growing popularity” of regulated weight loss injections such as Ozempic and Mounjaro, it is “concerned about fat dissolving injections, such as lemon bottle, which have little to no regulatory oversight to ensure their safe use by the public”.
And it added that the “shocking locations” where unregulated cosmetic procedures are taking place “fall outside of typical business premises and [make] taking action against unscrupulous businesses and practitioners much more difficult”.
“Lives at risk”
“There is a wild west of untrained, unlicensed and uninsured individuals who may be putting lives in danger,” it said.
“It is over a decade since the government was warned about the need for control of the market in aesthetic procedures, but there remains a vacuum which has already put lives at risk,” the CTSI added.
The body warned the public to “check [the] credentials” of their chosen practitioner, to “be wary of people advertising their services on social media platforms” and to “not buy products to use at home”.
Read more: ‘Many online pharmacies unregulated, illegal or fraudulent’, says MHRA
And it called for a “licensing scheme to help regulate the sector”, along with the “establishment of a ministerial led government task force” and the “removal of unsafe products sold online”.
CTSI external affairs manager Kerry Nicol said that she was “genuinely shocked by the scale of potential harm facing the public due to the alarming lack of regulation in the aesthetic industry”.
“Preying on people’s vulnerabilities”
“Many of these unregulated practitioners are preying on people’s vulnerabilities and the pressures they feel around body image, they are taking advantage of those who are often just looking for a boost to their confidence or self-esteem,” she added.
Nicol stressed that “action is urgently needed to crack down on the bad players operating in this sector,” adding that “a logical and immediate first step is the introduction of a national licensing scheme, giving the public a clear indication of who is qualified to carry out these procedures”.
Read more: ‘Disappointing’ new online pharmacy rules do ‘not go far enough’ warns PDA
Meanwhile, the NPA said that the CTSI’s report “[resonates] with countless reports from pharmacists of patients accessing high risk medication such as weight loss injections from unregulated sources including beauty salons or sellers on social media”.
“Medicines are not like ordinary goods for sale online, they must be handled with great care because they have the power to harm as well as to heal,” it stressed, adding that the public should “speak to their pharmacist if they have concerns”.
It comes after the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) issued a warning in April about “emerging issues” taking place in some community pharmacies including the supply of unlicensed ‘Lemon Bottle’ injections” – which claim to dissolve fat.
