counterfeit weight Loss Drugs on the Rise

In the US alone, 12% of the population have reported using injectable weight loss drugs, such as wegovy/Ozempic, Zepbound and Saxenda, over the past year. that’s more than double the number recorded in early 2024.

In european countries, demand is also on the rise: In the UK, for example, a survey found that 21% of the public had accessed an online or in-person pharmacy in the past year to obtain weight loss medication. Germans, for example, have also been keen to adopt the drugs, even if they have to pay for them themselves, according to a report by Reuters.

Amid this rising demand, there is a “growing threat of illegal medicines being advertised and sold online,” warned the European Medicines Agency in September 2025.

Thes include counterfeit versions of a drug called retatrutide, which is still in clinical trials and, therefore, not – yet – approved for human use. Others include a substance called sibutramine, which has been banned in some countries.

Interpol (the International Criminal Police Organization) says weight loss drugs account for a growing share of counterfeit and unapproved medicines intercepted worldwide.

in October 2025, authorities in the UK reported the largest seizure of trafficked weight loss medicines ever recorded. Valued at a quarter of a million pounds, it included thousands of injectable pens containing retatrutide.

Why are weight loss drugs being counterfeited?

Several factors appear to be contributing to this rise in counterfeit weight loss drugs,but the frist is that the legitimate drugs are promoted as very effective,and demand has grown faster than supply.

Celebrity use and promotion by social media fitness influencers have also helped normalize their use for weight loss.

“There’s so much hype that the general public sees this medication more as a lifestyle or vanity product rather than a highly regulated pharmaceutical used for the clinical treatment of diabetes and obesity,” said Oksana Pyzik, Associate Professor of Pharmacy at University College London.

The drugs were originally developed to treat type 2 diabetes but are now also used to treat obesity. While they have different commercial names and various active ingredients, they are all known as GLP-1 receptor agonists.

The most common approved drugs are:

• Wegovy/Ozempic (semaglutide)
• Zepbound (tirzepatide; sold as Mounjaro in the UK and EU)
• Saxenda (liraglutide)

GLP-1 receptor agonists mimic naturally occurring hormones that suppress a person’s appetite and slow down digestion. They can only legally and safely be dispensed wiht a prescription to individuals with a body mass index above a certain threshold.