Counterfeit and illegal weight loss injections: how to spot them

Illegal weight loss injections are a growing problem. Learn how to avoid them and what to look out for.



DO check if an online pharmacy is legitimate 

This is important to know.

All pharmacies in Great Britain, including those online, must be registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC).

You can easily check if an online pharmacy is legitimate by looking for it on the GPhC website. 

These legitimate pharmacies will supply genuine weight loss injection pens – but only if you have a prescription from a doctor or another healthcare professional. 

SemaPen is not an online pharmacy. We are part of Phoenix Health, the only private weight loss clinic trusted by the NHS to provide treatment.

This means we can provide expert support at every step of your journey. Unlike some online pharmacies, we don't simply sell you a weight loss pen and leave you to figure things out on your own.

DON'T be fooled by fake Ozempic

Ozempic isn't approved as a weight loss drug in the UK. It's an injectable medication for the control of type 2 diabetes. However, like Wegovy, it uses semaglutide as the active ingredient.

The only way an Ozempic pen can be legally offered to you for weight loss is if a doctor prescribes it 'off-label'. This means they are prescribing something for a use for which it isn't licensed. 

This should only happen in exceptional circumstances when the benefit to a person's health would be worth the risk of prescribing it for unlicensed use.

Anyone offering Ozempic online for sale without a prescription cannot be legitimate. If you see an offer like this, be very wary. At best, it means the injections are being offered illegally. However, it might also mean they're offering a potentially dangerous fake, another drug that's labelled as Ozempic or nothing at all.

In October 2023, the government reported that the MHRA had seized 369 potentially fake Ozempic pens since January of that year.

DO be very wary of compounded drugs

Some illegitimate suppliers sell the active ingredients used in weight loss injections in powder form for people to mix and inject at home. You might also see them for sale as pre-mixed syringes.

Selling weight loss medication in this compounded form – marketed as a special mix from a pharmacy – means there's no control over what goes into it.

Compounded weight loss medications are considered unlicensed because they can't be regulated. Rather than being produced by the recognised manufacturer under controlled conditions, they're mixed to order by individuals. They're usually sent with an ordinary syringe, too, instead of a special injection pen.

This is what you'll usually get if you order from social media adverts. There are good reasons why they are not considered safe.

For a start, you can't be sure what has gone into the mix. It might contain bacteria, an impure version of the drug or something completely different like sugar and alcohol. You might also get an incorrect dosage – either less of the active ingredient (meaning a less effective medication) or more (meaning a potential overdose).

In some cases, illegitimate suppliers have sold insulin syringes that have been relabelled. Taking these could make you very ill with hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar).

DO make sure you get an injector pen

Legitimate supplies of weight loss medication should come as a pen injector rather than an ordinary syringe. 

A pen injector delivers a precise dose. The dosage is always controlled and the counter dial on the pen shows you how many doses you've had.

With ordinary syringes, it's too easy to inject too much or lose track of how many doses you've used. Unfortunately, some people have made this mistake and become poorly, even needing hospital care.

DO examine your weight loss pen

This is especially important if you suspect you might have got it from an unregulated source.

Fake pens are one of the more dangerous ways that criminals and unregulated suppliers have taken advantage of demand. 

Some use disguised insulin injector pens that would normally be used by diabetes patients. The correct label is removed and replaced by a fake label for a well-known brand like Mounjaro or Wegovy.

This is very dangerous. If you take insulin without being instructed to by a doctor, it can cause a life-threatening drop in blood sugar. This could cause you to collapse into a hypoglycaemic coma. 

How do you know if you've received a legitimate pen? Here are a few things to look for:

• Is your pen missing the original box? Loose pens sent out in a plastic bag or wrapped packaging are suspect.
• If it came in the box, are there signs it has already been opened?
• Is the original patient leaflet there?
• Look for spelling mistakes and poor printing on the box, the pen labels and the leaflet.
• Is the paper quality poor for any of the labels or the leaflet?
• Are the seals on the pen already broken?
• Is the liquid anything but crystal clear?

If you have any doubts, DO NOT take the medication.

At SemaPen, we strictly follow medical screening guidelines and provide ongoing support from specialised obesity doctors and nurses. Our medical team also includes dieticians and mental health experts. We were founded by respected bariatric expert Professor David Kerrigan and have long-standing roots in best-practice medicine.

Sources

1. Wilding, J.P.H. et al. (2021) "Once-weekly semaglutide in adults with overweight or obesity" New England Journal of Medicine, 384(11) https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2032183