Illegal ‘semaglutide’ slimming medication offered in salons and on-line

For these with extreme weight points, semaglutide – the energetic ingredient in slimming medication – is usually a life-changer. Celebrity success tales have massively elevated demand, however introduced with it a booming black marketplace for unlawful and infrequently life-threatening merchandise. Daily News Investigations has found how simple these are to purchase.

“I just don’t like my body. I’m self-conscious about it.”

Vicky Boyd, from Newcastle, was trying ahead to a vacation, however on the identical time preventing extreme insecurity.

“I went to hospital and they weighed me and I was 13 stone; that was big for me,” she mentioned.

“It was stuck in my head constantly. I needed something. A quick fix.”

Mrs Boyd determined to purchase semaglutide with out a prescription, making the acquisition from a “friend of a friend”.

“I just injected myself – literally one dose and I was fine – then I got home and started feeling sleepy.

“Around two within the morning I acquired up and I could not cease being sick. My facet and my again had been hurting and I simply felt like my physique was completely shutting down.”

Initially she thought it would pass but, deep down, “I knew there was one thing severely incorrect”, she said.

“I went to the hospital. They mentioned my physique was riddled with toxins and my coronary heart charge was 200-odd.

“They rushed me in and put me on a drip. They said I’d damaged my kidneys.”

Today, even after therapy, she says: “I’m not the same. It feels like it’s totally damaged me.

“People suppose it is a fast repair however, belief me, it isn’t.”

BBC Investigations spoke to several people who describe buying semaglutide – the active ingredient in the legal and licensed drugs Ozempic and Wegovy.

While Ozempic is intended for those with type 2 diabetes, Wegovy is prescribed specifically for weight loss.

One woman from Sunderland, who did not wish to be named, said she also bought semaglutide from a friend of a friend, but three hours after her first injection she started to feel sick.

She then became violently ill and unable to keep even water down for “30 hours”.

Suffering a very high heart rate, she attended A&E where the staff were “not shy” in telling her they were unimpressed with self-injecting.

The BBC had the substance she bought tested at the University of Sunderland, where senior lecturer Dr Stephen Childs said it did not contain any semaglutide.

Instead he found a small amount of insulin and other “unknown compounds”.

Dr Childs said anyone who took insulin without needing to could experience health problems.

A second woman from Newcastle, who bought semaglutide from a beauty salon, also became ill after her first dose.

She was rushed by ambulance to the RVI Hospital with symptoms including numbness, a heart rate that was “by way of the roof” and extreme vomiting.

The BBC bought semaglutide from the same salon, which we are not identifying as it is only one of hundreds of illegal sellers across the country.

The sale was arranged over Facebook and collected at a property in the Newcastle area.

The kit cost £100 for a four-week course and came with needles, a liquid that was being kept in a domestic fridge, syringes, alcohol wipes and the semaglutide in white powder form.

Our investigator was asked if they had diabetes or any history of thyroid cancer, then told how much to inject and where.

Asked if there were any side effects, the seller said some people had experienced nausea or dizziness.

Our reporter was told to join a Facebook group for more help, but no advice was given on how to store the medicines.

The University of Sunderland tested the powder and found it was semaglutide, which is illegal to sell without approval.

In response, the salon owner told us they had not been aware they were breaking the law and would stop selling the injections.

Dr Paul Evans, a Gateshead GP, says Wegovy is available on prescription on the NHS, but currently not in the North East and North Cumbria.

“Every time it comes up within the information we get a spike in sufferers asking about it and each time we’ve to say ‘I’m sorry we will’t prescribe that in the mean time’.

“There’s not really a commissioning service for this in the North East at the moment. It’s also not available because of supply issues.”

Oksana Pyzik, a professor at UCL School of Pharmacy and member of the marketing campaign group Fight the Fakes, mentioned: “I think there is a level of casualness about Ozempic that we don’t see with other prescription medications.

“People can collapse, have seizures and, if they do not get medical consideration, organ failure and extended harm.

“The law needs to be updated and we also need to hold social media companies accountable.”

But, she mentioned, extra training is required, including: “You’re really gambling with your own life by buying a medicine from social media.

“It is simply not price dropping your life to reduce weight.”

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A spokesperson for Meta, which owns Facebook, said: “We do not permit the sale of pharmaceuticals on Facebook and have eliminated the violating content material.”

They mentioned Meta continued “to take a position sources and additional enhance our enforcement”, but similar content continues to be posted on Facebook and other social media platforms.

The Department of Health said: “The Medicines and Healthcare merchandise Regulatory Agency (MHRA) constantly works to establish these unlawfully buying and selling in medicines and can use its powers to take acceptable enforcement motion.”

Dr Alison Cave, the MHRA’s chief safety officer, said: “Buying prescription-only medicines with out a prescription from illegally buying and selling suppliers considerably will increase the chance of receiving one thing which is both pretend or not licensed to be used within the UK.

“Instead, please report it to us, so that we can investigate and take any necessary action.”

Meanwhile, Vicky Boyd’s husband Peter mentioned anybody contemplating shopping for semaglutide on the road or on-line ought to suppose twice.

He detailed his spouse’s expertise on Facebook in a submit which was shared greater than 13,000 occasions and prompted others to disclose their tales.

“We were lucky,” he mentioned. “Vicky was lucky.

“The subsequent one that does it may not be.”

Additional reporting by Calum Grewar.