Warning for GPs duped into prescribing fake version of wonder weight-loss drug ... trends now
Doctors are being duped into prescribing fake Ozempic as scammers scramble to produce copies of the highly sought-after weight loss wonder drug in backyard laboratories.
Consumers are also being warned to be extremely wary of being offered Ozempic, also known by its compound name semaglutide, by unverified websites as worldwide shortages of the drug spur production of fake substitutes.
Email and faxed ads for suspect semaglutide are flooding into the offices of Australian GPs, prompting a warning that some doctors have been fooled into prescribing knock-offs of Ozempic not produced by the official manufacturer Danish drugs giant, Novo Nordisk.
A worldwide shortage of weight loss wonder drug Ozempic are spurring scammers to flood the market with knock-off imitations
Medical watchdog the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) said they are aware of several patients suffering adverse events from using semaglutide of unknown origin that was mailed to them.
TGA officers raided a Sydney home late last month and seized items suspected of being involved in the manufacture and sale of fake Ozempic.
Semaglutide, along with peptides and human growth hormones, was also seized from raid on a Melbourne pharmacy earlier in March.
Department of Health and Aged Care Deputy Secretary Professor Anthony Lawler said doctors sending patients to fake medicine peddlers ‘represented a serious breach of trust’.
‘Not only have health professionals been duped into believing this was a legitimate pharmacy, but they have then referred their patients to have their prescriptions filled,’ he told a website run by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP).
‘Clinical judgement should be used in these cases, recognising that there may be elevated clinical risk for patients where medicines are not
